BIRDS, MIGRATORY. Throughout the whole range of natural history, there is not a more wonder ful, nor perhaps a more interesting phenomenon, than that of the migration of birds. We have our summer and our winter birds of passage ; but to what countries, some of them, after leaving us, take their flight, has not been yet accurately ascertained. We. well know, however, that when the weatht_r is favourable, they are most regular, both in their arri val, and in their departure. The lung aerial journies, which they -undoubtedly make, while they excite our wonder, must convince us, that this instinct, or what ever it may he called, can be nothing, but a divine energy, impelling and conducting them, through the trackless regions which they have to explore. The much boasted reason of man is often frail and fal lible, but the instinct of brutes seldom forsakes them, and when followed never leads them into error. Strange too, that this sagacity of migration, although in the face of many difficulties and dangers, should always be performed with the utmost alacrity and pleasure. For their subsistence and propagation, Providence has certainly given them this inclination/a and power of betaking themselves, to such countries Y. and climates, as are best suited, for the time, to yield them proper ftvd, and that are the safest and most convenient for their incubation.
There are a few naturalists, however, and among those principally Daines Barrington, who havedis puted, at least doubted, that birds pass any consider able extent of ocean, and are incapable of taking the long flights, which the supporters of what he calls the hypothesis of migration maintain.* This assertion, the author of this article, independently of other proofs, can, from his own personal observations, ,completely confute ; for in particular, while on a voyage, during the months of September and Octo ber 1799, on board of the Kenyon, bound from New York to Liverpool, in about N. lat. 48°, W. long. 31°, according to governor Pownal's chart of the At lantic Ocean, he saw several land birds perch upon the rigging of the ship, and among these were two or tbree hawks, and an owl, which visited them for several successive nights ; and he was so fortunate, as to catch a species of the alauda (lark,) which though not a bird of passage, shews at least a power of wing equal to. a very long flight, being then more than seven hundred from any continent, and not less than four hundred and fifty miles &mil Corvo, the nearest island from which they could come. Those writers who deny the probability, if not the possi bility, of the migration of birds to other countries, and to other climates, find much difficulty to account for their regular disappearance, and to find out into what holes and fastnesses they can hide themselves when they become invisible here. They generally say, that they creep into hollow trees, into clefts of tocks, into crevices of old buildings, and remain in such places in a torpid state during the winter..- Nay some affirm, that swallows retire under the waters, of pools, lakes, rivers, and seas ; that after this sub mersion, they revive before the coming spring ; and that these birds of summer, with feathers unruffled, and in vigorous case, emerge from their cold, suffoca ting, and uncomfortable winter retreat. Testimonies,
however, of people of supposed veracity, clergymen, justices of peace, &c. have been brought forward to support this most incongruous tale. We have for a long course of years searched through many parts of the kingdom, old towers, decayed buildings, churches, barns, hollow trees, clefts of rocks, and also occasionally used trawl or drag nets, in ponds, lakes, and rivers, and never were so successful as to find, either in life or in a torpid state, a single reput ed bird of passage in any of those places. Another circumstance which these sceptics in migration offer in defence of their system, is to produce some well authenticated proofs of woodcocks being seen, and hatching in England during the summer. That a few instances of this kind have happened, cannot be disputed ; but such things are at least unknown to us in Scotland, with one exception ; having in the middle of June flushed a wounded woodcock, while traversing a wood in the east corner of Perthshire. As to field-fares, red-wings, and snow-flakes, &c. these gentlemen are much puzzled how to dispose of them, and are therefore in a great degree silent on that head. Barrington, on the improbability of mi gration, says, " that it is surprising, if true, that mi gratory birds are never, during their passage, either heard, or seen by sailors, while navigating our seas." We admit that they are not so often perceived as might be expected ; but this we apprehend is owing to the great acuteness of their sight, which keeps them at such a distance, as to be unobserved by ves sels, that might otherwise annoy them, on their eager destination. He then rather triumphantly observes, " Besides this, the eastern coast of England, to which birds of passage must necessarily come from the con tinent, bath many light-houses upon it ; they would therefore, in a dark night, immediately make for such an object, and destroy themselves by flying with violence against it, as is well known to every bat fowler." This would imply that they never do so ; but he is much mistaken, for woodcocks are frequent ly known to dash upon Cromer, and other light; upon our eastern coast ; and at Cape Henlopen, upon the point of Delaware Bay in North America, there is a lighthouse, the lantern of which is about eight feet square, and from its situation and glare, vast numbers of migratory and other birds are attracted., and often destroyed by flying against it, and to pre vent them from breaking the glass, it was found ne-• cessary to cover it with a wire lattice of uncommon strength. Here in one morning upwards of a hun dred birds of various kinds were found dead. t This evidently shews that birds at times fly during the night ; a fact denied by this naturalist, and upon which he founds one of his leading arguments against migra tion.