show you that he had got at least as far as the sage of Selborne:—"All animals have a natural sensitiveness respecting heat and cold, and like men who seek cold places in the summer and warm places in the winter, so animals, if they can, migrate from place to place. Some are indeed always resident in their accustomed places; but others migrate, flying from the approaching winter at the autumn equinox, and at the spring equinox returning to the colder countries from dislike of the heat. Some migrate but a short distance, others, e.g. the Cranes, come from the ends of the earth; for these travel from the plains of Scythia (i.e. southern Russia) to the marshes of Upper Egypt whence the Nile flows (i.e. the Soudan). There the Pigmies are said to dwell; and this is no fairy-tale, but there is in reality a race of little men and horses who live in holes in the earth. The Pelicans also migrate, and fly from the Strymon to the Danube, where they breed. … The fish also migrate, some into the Black Sea and back again, some in the winter from the deep sea to the land, seeking the warmth of the shore, and vice versâ. The weaker kinds of birds too descend in winter and frost to the plains for the sake of warmth, and return in the summer. … The Wood-pigeon and Stock-dove leave us, and do not winter with us; and so does the Turtle-dove; but the Rock-dove stays with us all the winter. The same is the case with the Quail, though
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Aristotle on Birds
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