1 8 2 The Migration of Birds 



the two. Many of our birds winter in the Gulf States; 

 the swallows, swifts, and bobolinks making more 

 extended migrations, varying from Central America 

 to Brazil; while some species of snipe and plovers 

 make the longest migrations, wintering in southern 

 South America and nesting within the arctic 

 circle. 



Of the many phases of migration, there is one 

 which completely bafHes the most adroit students of 

 ornithology; that is, how young migrants find their 

 way when not accompanied by the old birds. The 

 only rational reason that we can assign is that the 

 birds have some instinct or faculty which directs 

 them. It may be the "homing instinct" reversed, 

 for certainly the only homes the young birds know 

 are the nesting places. Some believe that the same 

 faculty guides the young birds southward that the 

 dog or cat uses in finding its way home after being 

 transported a considerable distance. Probably the 

 young birds in migrating southward have no particular 

 spot in view, and a few hundred miles east or west 

 would make no difference, while on the northward 

 trip it has been proved that they return to the same 

 barn, chimney, or tree. Who can tell what guides 

 them? it may be the heredity of habit that directs 

 the migrants in the long perilous Journey. 



