132 BIRD WORLD. 



visit the islands where these birds winter, the forests 

 where flowers always bloom and insects are never 

 killed by frost, you must go either by train to Flor- 

 ida, and then cross by steamer from Tampa Bay to 

 Havana, or you can take other steamers which sail 

 directly from Boston, New York, and other eastern 

 cities to the West Indies. Unless you live on some 

 main line, you will have first to travel a shorter or 

 longer distance, as the case may be, by side lines, 

 which bring you to the big city where the steamers 

 or the fast express trains start. The birds, as you 

 know, can take neither" train nor boat. How is it 

 they are in New England in September, and in 

 November already in Cuba? 



You may have read how from Samarcand or 

 Irkutsk the lines of camels start for a long and difli- 

 cult journey across the desert. Many fall exhausted 

 by the way, or are attacked and killed by highway- 

 men. Merchants, often of different tribes, form a 

 company for mutual protection. In the African 

 deserts the caravans find pleasant spots called oases, 

 where they halt to refresh themselves from the w^ells 

 or springs, and to rest a little before they take up 

 their journeying again. 



The birds, too, form caravans before they start on 

 their long journeys in the fall. They have their 

 meeting places where different tribes assemble. They 



