196 THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 



ance. The winter is passed in a state of rest after 

 the mercurial energy of the previous summer, and 

 the fatigue of the long Migration Flight. During 

 winter in these southern regions the land is a land 

 flowing with milk and honey for migratory birds ; 

 insects swarm, the strands and mud-flats teem with 

 living things ; the air, the water, and the vegetation 

 alike abound with food ; w^hilst in more temperate 

 regions the ground is free from frost, and furnishes 

 birds that seek their food therein a seldom failing 

 store, and the berries and seeds on which many 

 birds almost exclusively fare are never hidden by 

 the snow for long together. The great attraction 

 in these winter haunts is this superabundance of 

 food ; whether it is sought in South America, in 

 Mexico, or the West Indies ; in sultry Africa, or 

 India ; in China, in Japan, in Malaysia, or far-away 

 Australia — it has been and is one of the strongest 

 incentives to the Migrants' southern flight during 

 the long-past ages that Avian Season Flight has been 

 the dominating necessity of its life ! But with the 

 return of the northern summer, as the sun steadily 

 progresses towards Cancer, a great change comes 

 over the scene. Hot desolation fills many of these 

 southern lands ; rivers and streams dry up ; vege- 

 tation is scorched, and conditions of life for the 

 love-sick migrant hosts become as unbearable as 

 they became in the northern w^orld in autumn, and 

 the great northern exodus begins. 



So far the destinations of migrant birds have 

 been exclusively confined to those of species that 



