MIGRATION. 239 



who for want of such emotion did not join their fellows 

 inevitably perished." As to the first clause of this state- 

 ment, we know that birds occasionally nest very far from 

 . their ordinary breeding habitat^ and for aught we can see 

 they might always do so; and as to the second clause, the 

 query naturally arises, how came the sad fate of the few 

 delinquents that " inevitably perished " on failing to migrate 

 to become so generally known and so deeply affecting ? It 

 is marvelous what an amount of loose speculation may 

 pass for science ! No; neither the wisdom of the birds, nor 

 the force of circumstances, however stern, can account for 

 the wonderful phenomena connected with the regular mi- 

 gration of birds. It would seem that this, like so many 

 other persistent habits in animated nature, must be caused 

 by the laws of instinct, superintended by an Infinite Intelli- 

 gence. Nor should we be stumbled because we, in the close 

 limitations of our finiteness, cannot conceive how the Infinite 

 and Omnipresent can touch these innumerable springs of 

 activity in animated nature. With proper evidence, there 

 should be room for faith. 



One very naturally sympathizes with Audubon in his 

 reflections on the bleak coasts of Labrador. "That the 

 Creator should have ordered that millions of diminutive, 

 tender creatures should cross spaces of country, in all 

 appearance a thousand times more congenial for all their 

 purposes, to reach this poor, desolate and deserted land, to 

 people it, as it were, for a time, and to cause it to be enli- 

 vened with the songs of the sweetest of the feathered musi- 

 cians, for only two months, at most, and then, by the same 

 extraordinary instinct, should cause them all to suddenly 

 abandon the country, is as wonderful as it is beautiful and 

 grand." 



