172 MIGRANTS FROM THE NORTH 



sea from the African continent, the winter home of 

 the majority of our migratory species, it is plain 

 that they could never get to their destination — from 

 England to South Africa, let us say — without deviat- 

 ing a good deal from the north and south direction. 

 America, North, South and Central, is land pretty 

 well all the way north and south from pole to pole, 

 seeing that the only break is a few hundred miles 

 of deep sea between the Magellanic region and the 

 Antarctic continent. 



Migration as I witnessed it was not composed 

 exclusively of South American species: many of the 

 birds were from the northern hemisphere. The rock 

 swallow {Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), for example, that 

 breeds in Arizona and New Mexico, and migrates to 

 southern Patagonia; also the numerous shore birds 

 that breed as far north as the Arctic regions, then 

 migrate south to the Argentine and to the extreme 

 end of Patagonia — or as near as they can get to the 

 Antarctic. The spectacle of the migration of these 

 birds that come to us from another hemisphere — 

 from another world, as it seemed, so many thousands 

 of miles away — was as a rule the most arresting, 

 owing to their extraordinary numbers and to their 

 loquacity, their powerful, penetrative and musical 

 voices — whimbrel, godwit, plover and sandpiper of 

 many species. 



My home was an inland one, a good many miles 

 from the sea-like Plata river, the vast grassy level 

 country of the pampas, the green floor of the world, 

 as I have elsewhere called it. There were no moun- 



