92 A HISTORY OF BIRDS 



America {H. erytJirogaster) extend their wanderings to Southern 

 Brazil. 



Out of these broad facts an attempt has been made to trace 

 the wanderings of the Common Swallow {Hirundo rusticd) in 

 more detail. And it is found that while some go to West Africa, 

 as far south as the Gold Coast, others extend down the whole 

 of the eastern portion of that continent as far as the Cape. 

 Now Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, in discussing these facts, assumes 

 that the migrant hosts wintering in these two areas are made 

 up indiscriminately of British-bred birds, as well as of birds 

 bred on the Continent of Europe. But this assumption, we 

 venture to suggest, is possibly incorrect. However, let this 

 pass for the moment. With this interpretation before him he 

 proceeds to ask by what routes do these two main bodies — 

 West and South African — travel. Do those making for West 

 Africa go across the Mediterranean direct or by the short cut to 

 Gibraltar, or from Italy to Malta, and so to Algeria and across 

 the Sahara ? Or do they follow the coast-line and so come to 

 Liberia and the Gold Coast ? As a yet further alternative he 

 suggests that the whole migratory army may travel together to 

 the Nile Valley when it breaks up into two great bodies, one 

 making for the West Coast, and the other continuing its 

 southern journey which ends in the Transvaal and the Cape. 



Bearing in mind the evidence as to the tendency to travel 

 as far as possible due north and south it seems probable, we 

 venture to think, that we shall eventually prove to be right in 

 assuming that the Swallows which winter on the Gold Coast of 

 Africa are those which make their breeding quarters in Great 

 Britain, France and Spain, and that they reach their winter 

 resort by the shortest and most direct route possible. This 

 being so, we may assume that those which reach the Transvaal 

 and the Cape have been bred in Eastern and South- Eastern 

 Europe. 



A large proportion of the summer migrants to Great Britain, 

 even the frail Warblers and Chats, winter in Africa. Our 

 Common Night-jar {Capriuiulgiis europcvus) goes to East Africa 

 by way of the Great Lakes. But nearly allied species which 

 may occur together in their breeding quarters often adopt very 

 different winter quarters. This is true of two European Shrikes 

 — the Red-backed Shrike {Laniiis collnrio) and the Woodchat 



