little bird has told me" so and so; and the
idea is very prettily rendered by Hans Christian
Andersen in his story of the Fir-tree,
where the young tree wonders what is done
with the trees taken out of the wood at
Christmas-time. " Ah, we know —we know," twittered
the sparrows, " for we have looked in at the
windows in yonder town."

Thus the mere power of flight possessed by
birds seemed to give them ubiquity; but perhaps
their comings and goings with the seasons,
their alternate disappearance and reappearance,
were wonders which excited even more remark,
and claimed more earnest attention.  These
periodic movements, which we term migration,
appear to have been observed in the very earliest
historic times, and although at first, perhaps,
they produced only astonishment, a closer
observation of them could not fail to be turned to
practical account.  At a time when men had no
almanack to guide them to the changing of the
seasons, no calendars to direct them in the
planting out of their fields and gardens, it is not
surprising that the arrival and departure of birds
helped to direct them in their tillage of the
soil.

It is not a matter, therefore, which need surprise
us, that, after Homer, the oldest profane
work extant, namely, the Works and Days of
Hesiod, is a manual of agriculture, whose title,
interpreted by the scholiast, signifies the art of
agriculture, and the proper time for its prosecution.
In this work the poet, who lived more than
twenty-seven centuries ago, informs us that
husbandry was in great measure regulated by the
blooming of plants, and by the coming and going
of birds.  Aristophanes makes one of his characters
say that in former times the kite ruled the
Grecians, by which his commentators explain that
he meant that formerly the kite was looked upon
as the sign of spring.  And in another place he
says that the cuckoo in like manner governed all
Phœnicia and Egypt, because when it cried
"Kokku" they considered that it was time to
reap their wheat and barley fields.  But in the
days of Aristophanes, and as men grew in knowledge,
this natural calendar passed out of repute,
and gave place to something more exact and of
more general application.  Still, in the Comedy
of the Birds, where it is said that the bird kind
sprang from Eros, the much-desired or plastic
Love, in conjunction with Chaos, the benefits
conferred by them upon mankind are summed
up as follows: "The greatest blessings (says
the Chorus of Birds) which can happen to
mortals are derived from us.  First, we show you
the seasons —to wit, 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 himself with an upper
garment. Next, the kite appearing, proclaims
another season, namely, that it is time to shear
your sheep; and after that the swallow informs
you when you may sell your cloak, and buy
light summer clothes."

Even in the present day, however, the farmers
are more or less guided in their actions by the
birds. Thus Dr. Solander tells us that the
peasants of Upland have this saying: " When
you see the white wagtail, you may turn your
sheep into the fields, and when you see the
wheatear, you may sow your grain."  For in
Upland there is seldom any severe frost after
the wheatear appears, and the sheep are housed
all the winter in that severe climate.  So, also,
the shepherds of Salisbury Plain say:

           When dotterel do first appear,
           It shows that frost is very near;
           But when that dotterel do go,
           Then you may look for heavy snow.

When men began to meditate upon the
movements of certain birds, how they all disappeared
at a certain time as if by common consent, and
then reappeared after a regular interval, they not
unnaturally fell into the error of mistaking cause
for effect, and regarded the birds as regulating
the seasons instead of the seasons as directing
the movements of the birds.  And since no man
could say with certainty whither they went or
what became of them during the interval of their
absence, it was no great wonder that they should
imagine them to have retired somewhere beyond
the sphere of the earth, and perhaps (who could
tell?) might approach the regions of Olympus,
where they could hold converse with the very
gods, and be enabled by them to predict future
events.  And when, in later times, it became
known to travelled philosophers, that some of
them might be seen high up the Nile during
winter, that fact, instead of shaking the
confidence of those who credited their gifts of
prophecy, only served to confirm their faith.  For
if that were the case, why should they not
make periodic visits to Æthiopia, and even to
Ammon, the favoured oracle of the ruler of the
gods, where they might meet Jove himself, and
receive from him an annual ratification of their
powers, and new messages from the councils of
the gods.  The very foresight of the birds, as
shown by the regularity of their times of departure
and reappearance seemed to have something
of a divine nature in it, and thus it became
almost natural for a superstitious people
to believe thai birds were, as Cicero styles them,
the interpreters or messengers of Jupiter, as
soon as any one boldly announced it as a fact.

Hence, although no writer after Hesiod speaks
of birds as capable of fully directing the
husbandman in his operations, we are not to suppose
that as time went on they lost their influence
and dignity.  On the contrary, they appear to
have gained a most extraordinary ascendancy
over the minds of men, which rose to such a
wonderful pitch that at length no affair of moment,
either public or private, was entered upon
without first consulting them.  Thus came in
augury, by which was meant a forewarning
notice concerning future events derived from
prophetic birds —a mode of divination attributed
to various inventors.  However it began, it
gained so much credit, that seldom anything of
moment was undertaken, either in time of war
or of peace, seldom were any honours conferred,
any magistrates created, without the