i83 



^lediterranean. Then on to Algiers, North Africa. 

 Skirting the Sahara tliey travel on to South Algeria 

 and Tripoli, some even going so far south as the Nile 

 Valley. 



If at this point I were to call in the assistance of a 

 pigeon flyer to explain these wor.derful feats, he would 

 say, "Oh! there's nothing wonderful about it. I have 

 Pigeons that know the road from France to Barnsley in 

 Yorkshire. because they have been trained to it, and if they 

 had served the same apprenticeship as the Swallow and 

 Martin, in time I would back them for a journey round 

 the world." Quite true ! It has taken these birds 

 hundreds of years to extend their breeding ranges to the 

 British Isles, always coming and going by the same 

 route, generation after generation, until they have 

 become thoroughly acquainted with every high hill and 

 headland, each river and valley, loft}- down, heath, and 

 forest, indicating the fly line, from which they never 

 depart. Their route of migration is, in fact, a law of 

 their own, which, like that of the ]\Iedes and Persians, 

 changeth not. But, some one may saj-, "Why do they 

 cross the wide seas, and why not in some cases cross 

 where one shore nia\' be seen from the other .-'' Can the 

 imagination of man picture for a moment the time when, 

 ages ago, there was no English channel — when France 

 and England joined — when parts of the Continent of 

 Europe were connected with North Africa by the Islands 

 of Corsica and Sardinia, and also by Italy and Sicily — 

 when we could not take ship and sail from Southampton 

 to Suez ? There would thus have been less difficulty in 

 crossing over from Africa and Europe to the British 

 Isles whilst these migratory species were engaged in the 

 extension of their breeding areas, and although many of 

 these routes are year by year becoming more difficult 

 and dangerous, still the descendents of those birds, 

 which opened out such routes, continue to follow the 

 same road when passing to and fro — and so it will be till 

 time with birds and men shall be no more. 



David Bet.l. 



