A BIRDLOVER'S YEAR 



swallow when it leaves us in the autumn, 

 in order to gain some slight idea of what 

 migration means. To arrive at its winter 

 quarters in West Africa, the swallow may 

 fly direct across the Mediterranean or by 

 the short cut to Gibraltar, or from Italy to 

 Malta, and so to Algeria and across the 

 Sahara Desert ; or it might follow the 

 coast-line, and so come to Liberia and the 

 Gold Coast, or it may choose the Nile valley, 

 which is a great migration-route for thousands 

 of European birds. A naturalist living in 

 Delagoa Bay has told us how a swarm of 

 swallows once took rest after a storm, and 

 sat in rows on the cornice and bedstead 

 until the morning sun beckoned them out 

 again. 



The direct Nile route is taken by many 

 species which reach Cape Colony and the 

 Transvaal. The kestrel, the sedge-warbler, 

 and many other birds, some of naturally weak 

 flight, perform this great journey twice a 

 year. Another route of migration extends 

 along the coast of China directly south to 

 the Malay Archipelago, and by this route 

 travel many warblers ; another stream of 

 migration extends to Formosa and the 

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