4
THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.
There is something fascinating about bird migration. The most
ancient writers had ideas on the subject that are interesting in their
way, and popular superstitions, proverbs, and legends are full of
allusion to it. According to Theophrastus (B.C. 320) the ancients
even named the prevailing winds after the birds they were supposed
to bring with them, and we know that in modern times the American
Indian named the recurring moons after the birds of passage whose
arrival is coincident with their changes.
Aristophanes, in his well-known comedy of "The Birds," gives
the first place amongst the immortals to them, and makes them say,
in those early days, "the greatest blessings which can happen to
mortals are derived from us; first, we show you the seasons, viz.,
spring, winter, autumn ; the Crane points out the time for sowing,
when she flies croaking into Libya; she bids the sailor put away
his rudder and take repose, and every prudent man provide him-
self with an upper garment. Next, the Kite appearing, proclaims
another season, viz., that it is time to shear your sheep. After
that the Swallow informs you when you may sell your cloak, and
buy light summer clothes."
As the movements of birds thus served for signs of time and
seasons in the fifth century before the Christian era, so we know
of many exactly similar cases at the close of this present century.
Bird migration was one of the central pivots of the primitive natural
calendar ; it ruled the seasons, and was more directly serviceable
to a pastoral people, dependent much on the chase, than astronomical
observations. As the ancients, so likewise ourselves, use the move-
ments of migratory birds for weather forecasts. Not only Aristophanes
but Pliny, Horace, and several other classical writers give several
instances of this. It was even the philosophic Bacon who told us
that "if Fieldfares come early out of the northern countries they
show us cold winters." A belief still very prevalent and amply dis-
proved by the present season. Even now men judge the near
approach of rough weather by the appearance of flocks of such
birds as Gulls, Plovers, &c.
Birds were not only classed amongst the immortals by the ancients,
but in their migrations—in their, to them, unaccountably sudden
appearances and disappearances—they were actually supposed to visit
other worlds and leave our sphere altogether. Until even somewhat
recent times it was seriously argued by an anonymous author, sup-
posed to be Dr. Charles Morton, Secretary to the Royal Society,