THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 
By ALEXANDER O’DRISCOLL TAYLOR.* 
Mr. Taylor pointed out the old meaning of instinct, which indi¬ 
cated a supposed mysterious impulse by which the lower animals, 
independent of instruction and experience, were directed to do 
what was wisest for the individual and species, as opposed to rea¬ 
son in man, that faculty by which absolute truth was perceived, 
by which one proposition was deduced from another, and by 
which ratiocination was carried on. He then explained how 
fuller light had been thrown on this subject by Darwin’s great 
work on the u Origin of Species, ” and quoted extracts which had 
not before been laid before any American audience, from a post¬ 
humous essay on u Instinct” by the great Darwin, read lately 
before the Linnaean Society in London. 
Turning to the special theme of the evening, the u Migration of 
Birds,” he traced the annual course of feathered migrants both in 
Europe and America, pointing out that, in the former region of 
the world, their course was definitely marked, and lay over the 
lines of submerged land at the three places where they regularly 
cross the seas. He contended that the migratory instinct had been 
developed by unconscious hereditary teaching, which preserved in 
the birds the memory of these lost land connections, and kept in 
existence from generation to generation, a salutary habit which 
want of food and of space to rear their young, had originally 
initiated in birds, probably after the glacial period, hundreds of 
thousands of years ago. In discussing the intellectual powers of 
birds, he stated some most curious facts about the aesthetic tenden¬ 
cies of the Bower Birds of Australia, which species ornament their 
halls of assembly with great taste, apparently for the mere love 
of beauty. The accurate knowledge of direction possessed by 
birds, as well as their special powers of imitation and their capac¬ 
ity for music, were also mentioned. In connection with the birds 
of America, the curious fact was adduced that the beautiful Hum- 
* Abstract of paper read before the Society on Jan. 3d, iSS4- 
