thomas] BIRD MIGRATION BY WHITE OF SELBOURNE 391 



land of Andalusia, as Spain was then called. The thought of 

 travel to foreign parts for himself, seems never to have occurred 

 to him, however he says, "Some young man possessed of fortune, 

 health and leisure, should make an autumnal voyage into that 

 kingdom ; and should spend a year there, investigating the natural 

 history of that vast country. Mr. Willughby passed through 

 that kingdom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted 

 along in a superficial manner and an ill humor, being much dis- 

 gusted at the rude, dissolute manners of the people." 



White's doubts of existing beliefs were the outcome of the 

 accuracy of the records of his observations, and this shows how 

 painstaking methods in very small matters, may often lead to the 

 discovery of big truths. For instance, he kept a daily calendar 

 about the birds he observed, so that, after several years, compari- 

 son showed him that some were migratory and others were not. 

 He knew that some were summer residents, others only summer 

 visitants, and some were only accidental. He knew the exact date 

 on which all migratory birds would arrive in Selbourne in spring, 

 and depart or pass through in the fall, and he makes frequent 

 comment upon the punctuality of some or the unusually early or 

 late arrival of others. Is it any wonder that he recognized in these 

 facts, the key to the great migratory wave which sweeps over every 

 land each year, and is it any wonder that much of his time was 

 spent in trying to solve the mystery of where birds went, how they 

 went and why they went ? 



His chief studies in bird migration were with the swallow kind 

 and the ring-ousel and I shall attempt to make clear the beliefs of 

 that time and White's discoveries to discredit these beliefs by his 

 records of these two birds. 



He says, " It is the hardest thing in the world to shake off super- 

 stitious prejudices : they are sucked in as it were with our mothers 

 milk ; and growing up with us at a time when they take the fastest 

 hold and make the most lasting impressions, become so inter- 

 woven into our very constitutions, that the strongest good sense is 

 required to disengage ourselves from them." That even a mind 

 so used to reasoning and judging as his own should itself be a vic- 

 tim of superstitions proves how truly he spoke. People believed 

 in the early days that as cold, inclement weather set in, the birds, 

 like the bats, hid themselves in caves, earth banks or old buildings 

 and passed the winter in a torpid state or like frogs , burrowed into 



