Editing Bird migration (section)

==Historical views==
[[File:Fresque du printemps, Akrotiri, Grèce.jpg |thumb |[[Minoan art|Minoan]] fresco of [[swallow]]s in springtime at [[Akrotiri (prehistoric city)|Akrotiri]], {{Circa|1500 BC}}]]

In the Pacific, traditional land-finding techniques used by [[Micronesians]] and Polynesians suggest that bird migration was observed and interpreted for more than 3,000 years. In Samoan tradition, for example, Tagaloa sent his daughter Sina to Earth in the form of a bird, Tuli, to find dry land, the word tuli referring specifically to land-finding waders, often to the Pacific golden plover.<ref>{{cite thesis |title=Manu narratives of Polynesia: a comparative study of birds in 300 traditional Polynesian stories |last=Richter-Gravier |first=Raphael |publisher=University of Otago |page=118 |date=2019 |s2cid=213586571}}</ref>

Writings of [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] recognized the seasonal comings and goings of birds.<ref name="LincolnInf-A001" /> [[Aristotle]] recorded that cranes traveled from the steppes of [[Scythia]] to marshes at the headwaters of the [[Nile]], an observation repeated by [[Pliny the Elder]] in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia Naturalis]]''.<ref name="LincolnInf-A001">{{cite book |last=Lincoln |first=F. C. |year=1979 |title=Migration of Birds |publisher=Fish and Wildlife Service |series=Circular 16 |url=https://archive.org/details/migrationofbirds00lincrich}}</ref> Aristotle, however, suggested that swallows and other birds hibernated. This belief persisted as late as 1878 when [[Elliott Coues]] listed the titles of no fewer than 182 papers dealing with the hibernation of swallows. Even the "highly observant"<ref>{{cite book |title=Birds Britannica |publisher=Chatto & Windus |last1=Cocker |first1=Mark |last2=Mabey |first2=Richard |author2-link=Richard Mabey |year=2005 |page=315 |isbn=978-0-7011-6907-7}}</ref> [[Gilbert White]], in his posthumously published 1789 ''[[The Natural History of Selborne]]'', quoted a man's story about swallows being found in a chalk cliff collapse "while he was a schoolboy at Brighthelmstone", though the man denied being an eyewitness.<ref name=GilbertWhite1 /> However, he writes that "as to swallows being found in a torpid state during the winter in the Isle of Wight or any part of this country, I never heard any such account worth attending to",<ref name=GilbertWhite1>White, 1898. pp. 27–28</ref> and that if early swallows "happen to find frost and snow they immediately withdraw for a time—a circumstance this much more in favour of hiding than migration", since he doubts they would "return for a week or two to warmer latitudes".<ref>White, 1898. pp. 161–162</ref>
Only at the end of the eighteenth century was migration accepted as an explanation for the winter disappearance of birds from northern climes.<ref name="LincolnInf-A001" /> [[Thomas Bewick]]'s ''[[A History of British Birds]]'' (Volume 1, 1797) mentions a report from "a very intelligent master of a vessel" who, "between the islands of [[Menorca]] and [[Majorca]], saw great numbers of Swallows flying northward",<ref>Bewick, 1797. p. xvii</ref> and states the situation in Britain as follows:

[[File: Rostocker Pfeilstorch.jpg |thumb |The ''Rostocker [[Pfeilstorch]]'', found in 1822, demonstrated that birds migrated rather than hibernating or changing form in winter.]]

{{blockquote |Swallows frequently roost at night, after they begin to congregate, by the sides of rivers and pools, from which circumstance it has been erroneously supposed that they retire into the water. |Bewick<ref>Bewick, 1797. p. 300</ref>}}

Bewick then describes an experiment that succeeded in keeping swallows alive in Britain for several years, where they remained warm and dry through the winters. He concludes:

{{blockquote |These experiments have since been amply confirmed by&nbsp;... M. [[Johann Natterer|Natterer]], of Vienna&nbsp;... and the result clearly proves, what is in fact now admitted on all hands, that Swallows do not in any material instance differ from other birds in their nature and propensities [for life in the air]; but that they leave us when this country can no longer furnish them with a supply of their proper and natural food&nbsp;... |Bewick<ref>Bewick, 1797. pp. 302–303</ref>}}

In 1822, a [[white stork]] was found in the German state of [[Mecklenburg]] with an arrow made from central African hardwood, which provided some of the earliest evidence of long-distance stork migration.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010
| author1= Ragnar Kinzelbach
| author2=Stefan Richter
| url-status=dead 
|title=Zoologische Sammlung der Universität Rostock | work= Universität Rostock|url=http://www.zoologie.uni-rostock.de/sammlung/|access-date=2023-02-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002041540/http://www.zoologie.uni-rostock.de/sammlung/ |archive-date=2 October 2011 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.zoologie.uni-rostock.de/fileadmin/MathNat_Bio_Zoologie/ZSRO_Flyer_2007_Engl.pdf Flyer for the Rostock University Zoological Collection] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322113930/http://www.zoologie.uni-rostock.de/fileadmin/MathNat_Bio_Zoologie/ZSRO_Flyer_2007_Engl.pdf |date=2012-03-22}} {{in lang |en}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last1=Kaatz |first1=Martin |last2=Kaatz |first2=Michael |last3=Meinzenbach |first3=Anne |last4=Springer |first4=Steffen |last5=Zieger |first5=Michael |date=2023-11-01 |title=From "arrow storks" to search engine data: Google Trends reveals seasonality in search interest for migratory white storks (Ciconia ciconia) in Germany |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004452312300102X |journal=Zoologischer Anzeiger |volume=307 |pages=83–88 |doi=10.1016/j.jcz.2023.09.005 |bibcode=2023ZooAn.307...83K |s2cid=262028097 |issn=0044-5231|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>[http://www.biofachschaft.uni-rostock.de/fileadmin/MathNat_Bio_Fachschaft/Sproessling_Nr._3_SS03.pdf Der Sproessling 3] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141125180016/http://www.biofachschaft.uni-rostock.de/fileadmin/MathNat_Bio_Fachschaft/Sproessling_Nr._3_SS03.pdf |date=2014-11-25}} {{in lang |de}} edition of the local student association's magazine containing an article about the ''Pfeilstorch''</ref> This bird was referred to as a ''[[Pfeilstorch]]'', German for "Arrow stork".<ref name=":6" /> Since then, around 25 ''Pfeilstörche'' have been documented.