or BIRDS* 
159 
that they are resuscitated by the return of spring, and 
come forth with new life and vigour: whereas, nothing 
can be farther from the truth; nothing can be more ridi- 
culous and absurd. The truth is, all the species are mi- 
gratory; and though their departure is conducted in such 
a way, as not to be generally observed; though they are 
not met with in prodigious flocks, of thousands uport 
thousands on their passage, yet, it is no argument against 
their actual migration. I have made them a subject of 
particular observation for a number of years, having al- 
ways felt a more than ordinary interest in this portion of 
the feathered race; and every year, since my observa- 
tions commenced, I have regularly seen them, about the 
beginning of September, making the same uniform and 
continued course towards the south. 
In their migrations, birds discover an astonishing de- 
gree of instinctive knowledge. They appear to under- 
stand the times and seasons with an astronomical exact- 
ness; and to discriminate places and courses with geo- 
graphical precision. Nor are they dependent on the 
counsel of numbers, or the experience of the old birds, 
for even the young birds, if retained till after the de- 
parture of' the general body, when let loose, will 
immediately take to flight, and pursue the course direct 
to their proper rendezvous. They need no star to direct 
them, no compass to guide them: they pursue their 
journey over immense tracts of country, over seas, and 
even oceans, with unerring certainty. When Columbus, 
that genius of ceaseless fame, and matchless enterprise, 
was prosecuting his voyage in search of a western conti- 
nent, he was assisted in his judgment and necessities by 
the birds of passage. With all the reason and judgment 
of a judicious naturalist, he altered his course and pur- 
sued that which he observed the birds to make. When 
his crew were wrought up to all the phrenzy of dispair, 
they were appeased by the appearance of a flock of birds; 
and though, a few moments before, they thought the 
breeze too rude, and that it carried them too fast from all 
human abodes, yet now they were induced to spread every 
rag of canvas,, and catch every straggling breeze; and 
