314 AS REGARDS "WILDFOWL." 



stance, which makes longer migratory flights than the 

 swallow. These beautiful creatures are everywhere. 

 We have seen them flitting in myriads within the 

 Arctic circle, and we have seen them equally numerous 

 on the African desert, and at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 more than 7000 miles away in a bee line; also in 

 India, in Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Dixon for 

 instance, in his charming work upon the migration of 

 birds, classes the swallow in the category of birds 

 having an "extended" migratory flight of from 7000 

 to 10,000 miles; and he states that only 10 species 

 altogether are at present known to take these enormous 

 flights. * 



If therefore " wildfowl" may be taken to mean birds 

 of wild and migratory disposition, whose field of action 

 is limited only by the boundaries of the terrestrial 

 sphere wanderers which have no home nor resting 

 place, whose days are passed continually upon the 

 wing, and which, free as the winds themselves, fade 

 away and perish the moment their wild freedom 

 is infringed; surely there can be no more typical 

 form of real wildfowl than the migratory swallow 

 tribe. 



On the other hand the game birds commonly classed 

 as " wildfowl" in its narrower sense (though undoubt- 

 edly all of a very restless and migratory disposition, 

 constantly shifting their quarters in search of food), as 

 a rule do not extend their flights to the extraordinary 

 distances accomplished by the swallow. Their comings 

 and goings are generally limited to making their way 

 during winter, beyond the reach of heavy frost, which 



* The Migration of Jlirds an Attempt to Reduce Avian Season- 

 flight to Law, by Charles Dixon, 1891, p. 57. 



