Ik 
INTRODUCTION. 
climate, as their wishes, or their necessities, direet. The annual migra- 
tions of the Woodcock, the Redwing, and the Fieldfare, and the myriads 
of water-fowl that cover the seas of the north, as well as of the smaller 
race of short-winged summer birds, are so obvious, and so generally 
known, that one might presume that the migration of the Swallow would 
not be disputed. Possessed of expansive wings, vast strength of pectoral 
muscles, amazing swiftness and agility, the distance of hundreds of miles 
cannot deter it, when the vicissitudes of the seasons, and want of its 
favourite subsistence, compel it to search in other regions for an atmosphere 
swarming with abundance of the insects which constitute its food. The 
c,onstant change of eountry, by various birds, was well known to the 
ancients. The husbandman, in the early ages of the world, noticed the 
seasons of their coming and departure, and predicted sterility or plenty 
from the periods of their disappearing, and of their return. His calendar, 
in ruder times, was not formed from the sun alone ; signs and appearances, 
drawn from the animated beings around him, regulated his actions, -^lian 
informs us, that the Rhodians welcomed the return of the Swallow, which 
was sacred to their household Gods, with a solemn song. Anacreon men- 
tions its disappearance at the approach of winter, and makes its journey to 
Memphis, or the Nile : and Virgil records the effects of the frigidus annus 
on many birds, and sings, in his immortal verse, their flight from the churlish 
winter to warmer climes : and Aristotle and Pliny remark, that the Swallow 
disappeared in the winter months. Our cursory observations on migration 
will be confined to the habits, actions, and manners, of the birds which 
we profess to describe. But this subject has been involved in useless dif- 
ficulties, and to the discussion have been added unnecessary doubts. The 
division of our feathered wanderers into two classes, as winter and summer 
All those animals, which are formed to repose in a state of torpidity through the winter, 
want the means of conveying themselves to warmer climates, beyond the reach of the rigour of a 
northern atmosphere; and es their food is to be found in abundance only in the summer season, 
had they not been formed for torpidity, they must soon have been extirpated. 
