Page:The Migration of Birds - Thomas A Coward - 1912.pdf/138



evolution of the study and knowledge of migration is an interesting subject, dealt with more or less completely by several writers. In a manual it is impossible to treat it fully. That the Greek poets—Homer and Anacreon for instance, and the Writers of Jeremiah and Job, knew something about the regular movements of birds is evident, nor is it surprising that in lands like Greece, Egypt and Palestine the passage of birds should be noted and directly connected in the popular mind with the seasonal changes.

In a measure similar observations and conclusions may be traced in the history or traditions of most peoples, but in a northern detached area, such as the British Islands, there is a marked tendency to overlook passage and note only arrival and departure, mostly of summer birds, Early observers noticed the swallow and cuckoo when they had actually come, and missed them when they had gone, but they failed to grasp whence they came or whither they went. Interchange of ideas with inhabitants of other lands was limited,