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Scientists believe that a majority of the earth's bird population migrate in some fashion or other.
科学家认为，地球上的大多数鸟类都以某种方式迁徙。
Some travel seasonally for relatively short distances, such as birds that move from their winter habitats in lowlands to mountain tops for the summers.
有些鸟类进行季节性地迁徙，飞行距离较短，比如有的鸟类夏季要从冬季栖息的低地迁徙到山顶。
Others, like the Arctic Tern, travel more than 25, 000 miles seasonally between the northern and southern poles.
其他鸟类，如北极燕鸥，季节性地在北极和南极之间迁徙超过2.5万英里。
Bird migration has been studied over many centuries through a variety of observations.
许多世纪以来，人们通过各种观察对鸟类迁徙进行了研究。
But until relatively recently, where birds went to in the winter was considered something of a mystery.
但直到最近，鸟类在冬天去哪里才被认为是一个谜。
The lack of modern science and technology led to many theories that we now recognize as error-filled and even somewhat amusing.
现代科学技术的缺乏导致了许多我们现在认为充满错误甚至有些可笑的理论的产生。
Take hibernation theory for example–two thousand years ago, it was commonly believed that when birds left an area, they went underwater to hibernate in the seas and oceans.
以冬眠理论为例，两千年前，人们普遍认为，当鸟类离开某个地区时，它们会潜入水下，在海洋中冬眠。
Another theory for the regular appearance and disappearance of birds was that they spent winter hidden in mud till the weather changed and food became abundant again.
关于鸟类定期出现和消失的另一种理论是，它们躲在泥中过冬，直到天气变化，食物再次丰富起来才出来。
The theory that some birds hibernate persisted until experiments were done on caged birds in the 1940s which demonstrated that birds have no hibernation instinct.
一些鸟类冬眠的理论一直存在，直到20世纪40年代科学家用笼中鸟进行了实验，证明鸟类没有冬眠本能。
One of the earliest naturalists and philosophers from ancient Greece was Aristotle who was the first writer to discuss the disappearance and reappearance of some bird species at certain times of year.
亚里士多德是古希腊最早的博物学家和哲学家之一，他是第一个在书中讨论某些鸟类在一年中特定时候消失和再现的人。
He developed the theory of transmutation, the seasonal change of one species into another, by observing redstarts and robins.
他通过观察红尾鸲和知更鸟，发展了蜕变理论，即一个物种转变为另一个物种的季节性变化。
He observed that in the autumn, small birds called 'redstarts' began to lose their feathers, which convinced Aristotle that they changed into robins for the winter, and back into redstarts in the summer.
他观察到，在秋天，被称为红尾鸲的小鸟开始失去羽毛，这让亚里士多德相信它们在冬天变成了知更鸟，在夏天又变成了红尾鸲。
These assumptions are understandable given that this pair of species are similar in shape, but are a classic example of an incorrect interpretation based on correct observations.
鉴于这两种鸟体型相似，这些假设是可以理解的，但这是基于正确观察得出的错误解释的经典例子。
The most bizarre theory was put forward by an English amateur scientist, Charles Morton, in the seventeenth century.
最离奇的理论是由英国业余科学家查尔斯·莫顿在17世纪提出的。
He wrote a surprisingly well-regarded paper claiming that birds migrate to the moon and back every year.
他写了一篇广受好评的论文，声称鸟类每年都会迁徙到月球上。
He came to this conclusion as the only logical explanation for the total disappearance of some species.
他得出这一结论是对某些物种完全消失的唯一合乎逻辑的解释。
