A BIRDLOVER'S YEAR 



There is also a local migration, our thrushes, 

 skylarks, and many others moving into 

 counties and districts farther south. The 

 quail is an interesting traveller, and in 1912 

 a pair were known to breed in Hadding- 

 tonshire, their winter quarters being Asia 

 and Africa. This species of quail must be 

 the bird which fed the Israelites in their 

 march across the wilderness. When with 

 us the quail is a ground-dweller and does 

 not essay any long-sustained flight, yet this 

 bird wanders across seas, vast deserts, and 

 lofty mountain-chains, and by means of the 

 migratory instinct is widely diffused over the 

 three great continents of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa. 



The stork spends the winter in Cape 

 Colony and India, passing in spring into 

 Denmark, Holland, and Germany. The 

 nightingale, " light- winged dryad of the 

 trees," passes in summer into England, 

 Germany, Switzerland, and France from its 

 winter quarters in the far south ; but never 

 as a rule penetrates beyond Yorkshire, and 

 is hardly ever known to have been seen 

 farther west than Somersetshire, though 

 there seems no apparent reason to account 



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