wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent."

These flights are, doubtless, in search of food, and may throw some light on the nature of the principle by which migrations are influenced, as they are obviously regulated by an impulse, if not observing and intelligent, at least capable of being adapted to new circumstances, and of taking advantage of new discoveries. Catesby mentions, that since the discovery of America has introduced crops of foreign grain into that once savage and uncultivated country, not only have these comparatively novel articles of food become the familiar resort of native birds from distant regions, but that various species of the winged tribes, naturally strangers to that continent, have, by some means, become aware of the existence of such exotic stores, and arrive annually in numerous flocks, at the proper season, to avail themselves of this new provision for their wants. The rice-bird and the wheat-bird are of this description. The latter, if Catesby's observations be correct, has taken this new course of migration across the sea from the Island of Cuba, between one and two hundred miles distant from the nearest point of the mainland, leaving that region immediately after the rice harvest, and alighting in Carolina in time to partake of the rice crop in that later climate, and afterward of the ripening wheat in the more northerly plains of Virginia. It is, indeed, but a few years since the wheat-birds first found their way to this latter State, where they now regularly flock at the proper season, in such numbers, as materially to interfere with the gains of the farmer.

This is a very interesting view of the nature of the winged family, and gives rise to some curious and difficult questions. By what means do birds ascertain the introduction of their proper food into these new and distant regions? How do they communicate the information to their fellows, after they have obtained it? And when once known, by what faculty is it perpetuated in

the individuals, and transmitted to their posterity? Are we to believe that, like man, they make distant voyages of discovery in search of new stores; that they possess a faculty resembling that of speech, by which they convey a knowledge of the discoveries they have made; and that they are furnished with memories sufficiently retentive, and reasoning powers sufficiently strong, to enable them, from year to year, as the season returns, to profit by the new knowledge they have acquired? This seems to be Catesby's opinion; and it would, doubtless, readily account for these and various other phenomena of a similar nature, which may occur to the inquiring mind; but it seems to be so inconsistent with what is known of the limited mental powers of birds, that it will not readily be assented to, and we must, probably, look for the true solution in some qualities bearing more resemblance to the admitted faculties of the race. If, however, we attempt to pursue the inquiry farther, we shall, perhaps, here, as in a thousand other instances, land ourselves in perplexity and darkness, and be forced to rest in the humbling conviction, that such knowledge is too high for us. When we become aware that the migratory impulse varies according to circumstances, and is modified by changes in climate or in food, whether dependant on natural causes or on the labours of civilized man, we seem to have acquired a glimmering of something like a principle of reason as applicable to that impulse. But when, on the other hand, we consider the extent to which that reasoning principle must necessarily be carried, before it can account for the phenomena,-when we recollect, that it must include some high powers of memory, reflection, and judgement, as well as considerable geographical knowledge, and an accurate acquaintance with the progress of time, as connected with the changes of the seasons and the ripening of the fruits of the earth, it seems altogether impossible to maintain this ground, and we feel compelled to fall back on our first conclusions, and to resolve the whole into a power, the nature

of which has hitherto eluded all attempts to analyze it, and our ignorance of which we endeavour to conceal under the name of instinct.

Here, then, we find new cause to look up with awe and adoration to the mysterious but beneficent operations of that unseen, omnipresent Intelligence, who causes "the stork in the heaven to know her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, to observe the time of their coming."

SEVENTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

HYBERNATION.-MIGRATION OF QUADRUPEDS.

THE care of Providence in securing the subsistence and comfort of quadrupeds in the winter months, is not less remarkable than that which is displayed toward the feathered creation; and the modifications of their hybernating instincts, and of other arrangements, exhibit equal indications of wise and beneficent design. A striking example of that adaptation of propensities to external circumstances, which is to be found characterizing the instincts of all the orders of organized beings, occurs among the brute tribes, in the limited extent of their migratory habits. Being destitute of wings, which transport the various species of birds so expeditiously and safely through the air, they cannot leave their native haunts without difficulty and danger, arising from the rugged and intersected nature of the earth to which they are confined, and the fury of the enemies they would meet with in a journey necessarily tedious, and often unsheltered. Some quadrupeds, however, do possess this instinct in situations favourable for its exercise. In our own island, for example, the stag and the roebuck leave the higher regions on the approach of winter, and seek protection in the more sheltered plains. But it is in

continental countries, where larger space is afforded, and where the variety of climate gives freer scope for the developement of the principle, that migratory habits are to be chiefly expected, and it is there that they actually exist to the greatest extent. I shall confine myself, on this subject, to the quotation of an interesting passage in Mr Kirby's Bridgewater Treatise, which occurs under the head of Geographical Distribution of Animals :—

"We are next to consider those migrations that take place periodically, and usually at certain seasons of the year; the general intention of which appears to be a supply of food, and often a temperature best suited to reproduction; Providence, in this, taking care, that their instincts shall stimulate them to change their quarters, when these two objects can be answered at the same time, and by a single removal.

“In North America, that ferocious and lion-like animal, the bison, called there the buffalo, forms regular migrations, in immense herds, from north to south, and from the mountains to the plains; and, after a certain period, returns back again. Salt springs, usually called salt-licks or salines, found in a clay compact enough for potter's clay, are much frequented by these animals; whence they are called buffalo salt-licks. Dr Richardson informs me, that the periodical movements of these animals are regulated almost solely by the pastures; when a fire has spread over the prairies, it is succeeded by a fine growth of tender grass, which they are sure to visit. How the bison discovers that this has taken place, seems not easily accounted for; perhaps stragglers from the great herds, when food grows scarce, may be instrumental to this.

“The musk-ox, a ruminating animal, between the ox and sheep, has the same habit, extending its migratory movements as far as Melville, and other islands of the Polar Sea, where it arrives about the middle of May; and going southward toward the end of September, where it has been seen as low as latitude 67° N., which,

as Dr Richardson observes, approaches the northern limit of the bison. Its food, like that of the rein-deer called in North America caribou, is grass in the summer, and lichens in the winter. Its hair is very long ; and—as well as that of the bison, which has been manufactured, both in England and America, into cloth-might be woven into useful articles. This animal inhabits, strictly, the country of the Esquimaux, and may be regarded as the gift of a kind Providence to that people, who call it oomingmak, and not only eat its flesh, but also the contents of its stomach, as well as those of the rein-deer, which they call norrooks, which, consisting of lichens and other vegetable substances, as Dr Richardson remarks, are more easily digested by the human stomach when they are mixed with the salivary and gastric juices of a ruminating animal.

“The wild rein-deer, in North America, in the summer, as the excellent man and author lately mentioned states, seek the coast of the Arctic Seas. It is singular, that the females, driven from the woods by the musquitoes, migrate thither before the males, generally in the month of May (some say in April and March); while the latter do not begin their march till toward the end of June. At this time the sun has dried up the lichens on the barren grounds; and the moist pastures in the valleys of the coasts and islands* of the above seas, afford them sufficient food. Soon after their arrival the females drop their young. They commence their return to the south in September, and reach the vicinity of the woods toward the end of October. After the rutting season, which takes place in September, the males and females live separately; the former retire deeper into the woods, while the pregnant herds of the latter remain in the skirts of the barren grounds, which abound in the rein-deert and other lichens. In the woods

* There seems to be a trifling inaccuracy here. In the month of June, the ice has ceased to bridge the northern seas; and the males cannot reach the islands if they do not arrive sooner than this period.-H. D. † Cenomyce rangiferina.-Achar.