no THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



ornithologist of wide Indian experience, and for 

 some time stationed at Gilgit in the North-west 

 Himalayas, informs me of the wonderful amount 

 of migration in and out of India of Palaearctic 

 birds through the passes of this wild upland region 

 — a stream of migration which is continued along 

 the valley of the Indus, as previously noted. The 

 Pamir Plateaux, otherwise known as "the roof of 

 the world," in Central Asia, is another important 

 route of migration, as the late Dr. Severtzow's 

 observations abundantly prove. In North Africa, 

 the Atlas mountains are followed by many migrants 

 on their w^ay from Morocco and Algeria to Europe, 

 via Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily. Our information 

 respecting mountain routes in the New World is 

 not very great ; but there can be litde doubt that 

 they are important, more especially as the ranges 

 there are almost parallel to the coast-lines. As 

 guides they must prove of inestimable service. 



From the above remarks it will readily be seen 

 that the several great Routes of Migration are of a 

 very varied character ; and when in addition to them 

 we take into account the numberless local routes, 

 of which it w^ould not be possible to name more 

 than a tithe, we can form some idea, if only of the 

 slightest kind, of the complicated nature of these 

 avian fly-lines. It must also be remembered that 

 probably very few birds keep exclusively to one 

 or other of these routes, but make use of all, or 

 at least several of them, during their seasonal 

 flights. A bird in its journey from South Africa 



