76 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



station, a flock of quails approach, immediately broke off 

 his sermon with the words : Amen ! my dear brethren, the 

 quails are coming! 



Famous are also the flights of storks, who have their 

 summer-houses high up in the north of Europe, on the 

 roof of the poor peasants' huts, and live during winter, 

 in stately pride, on pyramid and mosque. Cranes, like- 

 wise, and herons, travel in fall to the warmer south ; 

 when they take wing, their clang is heard from afar, and 

 they rise so high up in the air, that the eye cannot reach 

 them, and we only hear their rough voices, for they do 

 not fly in silence, as most other birds, but utter constant 

 cries, especially when travelling at night, to keep the scat- 

 tering flock together. 



Among the most remarkable migrations of birds are 

 those of the North American pigeon, the very "herrings 

 of the air," as they have, most unpoetically, been called. 

 Like them, however, they appear in astounding numbers, 

 nobody knows whence, and are found alike all over this 

 continent, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 from' the Atlantic to the Pacific. About broodtime, they 

 unite in millions to seek a comfortable home. Their num- 

 bers are far beyond all computation ; they darken the 

 heavens with their vast armies, and break down the forests 

 on which they settle. Not less strange is the inexplicable 

 faculty which other pigeons possess, to find the way to 

 their home. Birds have been taken, that had never been 

 further from the place of their birth than a few miles; 

 they were carried by rail to the distance of more than 

 a thousand miles, and then let loose. They were seen 



