AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
157 
The two general classes observe the same law in both of 
their migratory instincts — the finding of food, and of fit 
places for the rearing of their young. The general motion 
for these two purposes is in opposite directions — they move 
toward warmer regions in search of food, and toward colder 
ones in order to build their nests. The winter birds come 
to us for food, and the summer ones for nidification. The 
winter ones never are those that feed upon land insects, and 
but seldom those that feed upon seeds; because when they 
come, there are few of these. They are chiefly water- 
birds, in some sense or other. They frequent the shores of 
the seas, the inland lakes, Or the margins of springs, rivu- 
lets, and rivers, and they swim or wade, or merely run 
along the bank, according to their nature; and resort to 
those haunts where their food is to be found with the most 
unerring certainty. They are all common inhabitants of 
regions farther to the north, have reared their broods there, 
and remained till the supply of food began to fail. The 
extent of their flight southward depends upon the severity 
of the winter; they come earlier, and extend farther, when 
that is severe; and their departure is accelerated by a warm 
spring, and retarded by a cold one. Though the diffusion 
of the same species of birds be much more extended than 
that of the same species of quadrupeds, there is still a va- 
riation according to the longitude. The birds of passage 
which appear in Britain are not exactly the same as those 
either of continental Europe or of America; and that ac- 
counts for the appearance of the occasional visiters. A 
strong wind from the east, during the time of their flight, 
often wafts a continental bird to our shores; and a strong 
wind from the west occasionally brings us an American 
visiter. The flight of birds is, therefore, a sort of augury, 
though a very different sort from that believed in by the 
superstitions of antiquity. It has no connexion with the 
offices or fortunes of men, but it tells what kind of season 
prevails in those climes whence the visiters come. The 
early appearance of the winter birds is a sure sign of an 
early winter in the northern countries; and the early 
appearance of the summer ones is just as sure a sign of an 
early and genial spring in the south. 
The migration of our winter visitants is a very simple 
matter; we can easily understand why birds, when their 
supply of food begins to fail, should fly off in a warm direc- 
tion; but the return — the general migration northward for 
the purpose of rearing their young, is, at first consideration, 
a more difficult matter. Yet when we think a little, the 
difficulty ceases, and the one movement becomes no more a 
miracle or a marvel than the other. Very many of the 
summer birds feed upon insects; and summer insects are 
more abundant in the northern regions than in the south. 
This happens particularly with the water-flies, of which there 
are supposed to be several generations in the course of a 
Rr 
long summer’s day; and the short night at that season occa- 
sions little interruption to their production. The same 
causes which produce the greater supply of insect food, in- 
crease the daily period during which the bird can hunt, 
and this gives it a farther facility of finding food, over 
what it would have in the comparatively short days farther 
to the south. But the breeding time is that at which the 
birds are called upon for extraordinary labour. During the 
period that the nest is building, there is a new occupation 
altogether; and the nests, even of very small birds, are 
constructed with so much care, that that and the finding of 
subsistence demand more than the average power of indus- 
try. When the female begins to sit on the eggs, the feed- 
ing of her partially depends upon the male; and when the 
young are hatched, their support, till they are in a condition 
for supporting themselves, requires* a considerable portion 
of the time and industry of both parents. When the young 
are fledged, the parent birds still require long days: the 
operation of moulting, by which their tattered plumage is 
replaced by a new supply, exhausts them: thus they have 
long days, and also food in abundance, when they are least 
able to make exertions in search of it; and by the time that 
the decreasing supply warns them that it is time to seek 
more southern climes, they are in prime feather and vigor- 
ous health, and able to sustain the fatigues of the voyage. 
The return, too, is, generally speaking, after the autumnal 
equinox, so that in their migration southward, they have 
the same advantage of a longer day than in places north- 
ward. Thus, even in this common-place matter — a matter 
which is so common-place that few take the trouble of heed- 
ing it, and almost none inquire farther than saying that it 
is the instinct of birds, — we may trace as perfect a succes- 
sion of antecedent and consequent, or as we say, of cause 
and effect, as in any other part of the works or economy of 
creation. We ought, indeed, to guard very carefully 
against stopping at the word instinct, or indeed at any other 
word which is so very general that we cannot attach a clear 
and definite meaning to it. Those general words are the 
stumbling-blocks and barriers in the way to knowledge; 
and when we turn to them who take upon themselves the 
important business of instruction, and ask them for an ex- 
planation, they but too frequently give us a word , and 
when we get one, in our own language or in any other, to 
which we can attach no meaning, the path to knowledge is 
closed. Perhaps there are few words by which it is more 
frequently closed than this same word, “ instinct;” because 
we are apt to rest satisfied with it as an ultimate or insulated 
fact, and never inquire into that chain of phenomena of 
which it forms a part. Now nothing in nature stands alone: 
— Creation needs no new fiat; but the succession of events 
throughout all her works depends on laws which are uner- 
ring, because they are not imposed by any thing from 
