A BIRD’S EDUCATION 
45 
magnetic direction towards or away from the poles. This helps 
us very little, because at the very time that some birds are 
migrating north or south, others are travelling east or west, 
while several species in flying to their spring destination, instead 
of taking a direct line go two sides of a triangle and return by 
the third side in the autumn. , 
Another theory is called the “ sense of direction,” such as is 
more possessed by savage tribes than by the civilised. Civilised 
man cannot travel in a straight line without aid or guide : he 
almost always turns involuntarily to the left, and wanders in 
a circle. The savage gains his “ sense of direction ” by much 
experience. He usually lives a roving life : he notices the lie 
of the ground, or the growth of the trees, and this or that object 
by which he is enabled to find his way. Young birds can have 
no experience when travelling for the first time, and there are 
no marks or objects to guide them in a long journey across 
the sea. 
The theory of “ local memory ” cannot be of any assistance 
to a young bird setting out on a journey of thousands of 
miles. 
Then there is the theory of “ inheritance of collected 
memory” or “tradition.” This might be, and probably is, of 
assistance to those that have made the journey before, but 
could in no way help the young unless they were accompanied 
by the old birds to point out the way. 
A migratory column of birds is a broad front hundreds of 
miles wide, and corresponding with the latitudinal range of the 
breeding area. Its course is not guided by the “ conformation 
of the land” — still another theory — for migrants “do not follow 
ocean coasts, rivers, or valleys.” Some American birds (so 
Heinrich Gatke, author of “ Heligoland,” tells us) make the 
journey to Ireland, a distance of “ four thousand eight hundred 
miles, in nine hours ; ” and during nearly the whole time are out 
of the sight of land. 
Amidst the many theories is it beyond the bounds of possi- 
bility that birds impart to their children the knowledge they 
themselves possess of foreign lands ; that they teach them 
when, and where, and how to make the journey, and the pre- 
cautions to take so as to arrive safely in the land to which they 
themselves will follow, a little later in the year ? If it be 
true that the first six or eight weeks of a bird’s life are spent 
in the company of its parents, and that then it sets out on a 
long journey with companions of its own age only, and goes 
wdth “ unerring certainty ” to the v^ery country where its parents 
had been the year before, we are almost driven to the conclusion 
that the knowledge required for such a journey must have been 
imparted by the parents and in no other way. 
Most birds have a good deal to say to each other in their 
own particular way, and when in company engage in much 
merry conversation. We have only to listen to the sparrows in 
