5. Nearctic, roughly America north of the Gulf of Mexico.
6. Neotropical, America south of the Gulf.
Newton suggested an alteration, a continuous northern region to be called the Holarctic Region, which embraces almost the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, and the division of the Australian into Australian and New Zealand Regions. Each of these southern regions is the winter home of some of the Holarctic birds, and it is a matter of dispute whether many of these originated in the northern or southern hemispheres. The value of these artificial divisions of the world is rather in the consideration of the conditions their varied climates and physical features present as attractions to birds in search of suitable nesting places and food supplies.
The study of Migration involves reference to the work of ornithologists of the past and present, the mass of contradictory literature already referred to, and we are repeatedly faced with the difficulty that some particular theory about the vexed questions of the cause or origin of migration, the height and speed at which birds travel, whether they do or do not follow routes, how they find their way, in what order they migrate, how and why they do or do not avoid dangers, or any similar problem, which seems to give finality so far as certain cases are concerned, is met by an absolute negation in other instances. The truth seems clear; more than one factor has influence on most birds, and different species in different places are influenced by different factors. Elliott Coues' sweeping statement, though I strongly disagree with the article in which it occurs, expresses much that is true. "Isepipteses and magnetic meridians, coast-lines and river channels, food-supply and sex-impulses, hunger and love, homing instincts and inherited or acquired memory, thermometer, barometer and hygrometer, may all be factors in the problem, good as far as they function; but none of them, and not all such together, can satisfy the whole equation."
Some of the theses may be laws or rules, but there are no rules without exceptions, and these exceptions may become local rules. Laws regulating migration in one area, whether it be the great continent of America, the British Islands or the islet of Heligoland, may have little application in other parts of the world: local evidence alone can never solve the great problems.
[CHAPTER II]
CAUSE AND ORIGIN OF MIGRATION
The question—What makes Birds Migrate? or what causes them to remove from one zone to another at certain seasons, has been answered, no doubt to the satisfaction of the respondents, in many varied ways. Closely connected with the question of immediate impulse is the deeper, and less easy to prove problem as to how migration originated.