ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS, 
129 
confined migratory birds during the winter, we may safely believe that Mr. 
Pearson's Swallows manifested, at the usual time, a strong migratory feeling. 
This, probably, was either unnoticed, not understood, or thought unworthy of 
record, by the experimentalist. The want of ability to gratify a desire does not 
prove that such a desire is not felt. Yet on Dr. Bushnan’s grounds we must 
believe, that because the Swallows could not migrate, they had no inclination to 
do so. He might as plausibly contend, that a man after a three-days' fast would 
have no sensations of hunger, if he were unable to procure food. 
As the excitement of the organ of Locality occurs in birds kept in cages in 
a warm temperature, and abundantly supplied with food, another class of 
naturalists are of opinion that coldness and scarcity of provision have no influence 
whatever in producing periodical migration. 
Both these extreme opinions appear to be erroneous. I am inclined to believe 
that, at first, the coldness of climate, and want of nourishment, were the only 
causes of migration, but that now, this habit, continued through so many genera¬ 
tions, has such an influence over the species, that the involuntary excitement of 
the organ, at stated periods, must exist , although the want of food, or change of 
temperature, is not felt. I have no doubt, however, that these still continue to 
add a great stimulus to the excitement.* Nor is this explanation improbable. 
In fact, that peculiar habits, &c., of men are transmitted to their offspring, is so 
well known, that it is unnecessary to enforce it here. The same influence is 
found also in the animal kingdom. “ Abilities,” remarks Mr. Jesse, “ which 
have been kept up by practice throughout several generations, may finally be 
propagated as natural propensities. I had a young Pointer which found, and 
pointed at game, the first time he was taken into a field. The descendants of a 
breed of Terriers, which I have had many years, shew their teeth, and put out 
their paw when they are caressed. This is a peculiarity of the breed. Young 
South Sea Islanders are said to be able to swim when first put into the water.”t 
* YVe are disposed to take a different view of the case, believing, as we do, that all migratory 
birds must ever have possessed the organ of Locality—-and likewise every other faculty—in the 
same degree that they now possess it; and that, without the innate feeling which now induces 
birds to travel, no individual species would ever have quitted its native country, to which it is 
naturally wedded by other equally innate powers. This argument is supported by the fact that 
the lower animals, like Man, so long as they remain in a wild and savage state, continue unaltered 
in their habits. The feeling of hunger or of cold would only impel the animal to seek food, and 
would not teach it that by crossing the seas sustenance might be procured. Thus although, by 
adverse winds or other accidents, single individuals may occasionally be cast on strange shores (an 
occurrence which has, of late years especially, considerably increased the British Fauna), the 
laws which govern migration are found to be fixed. That birds were originally, and still are, im¬ 
pelled to migrate by the innate faculty of Locality is, therefore, tolerably certain, though the 
feeling which directs their course is not quite so obvious.—Eo. 
f Jesse’s Gleanings in Natural History, 3d Series, p. 149. 
