94 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



per day; but certainly birds travel quicker 

 northward in the spring than they do 

 southward in autumn." 



As far as Chiaa is concerned, the wild fowl 

 after quitting their breeding grounds in the 

 region of the Arctic Circle, pass over 

 Siberia and Mongolia, and settle for the 

 winter months between the parallels of 40 

 and 20 north latitude. Shanghai should be 

 eminently well situated for the observation 

 of the migratory flightings, situated as it is 

 between the wide estuaries of the Yangtze 

 and Tsien Tang rivers, but very rarely 

 are the birds seen as they pass over, though 

 distinctly heard and apparently tantalizingly 

 near. 



" Wild birds that change 



Their season in the night, and wail their way 

 From cloud to cloud " 



Wild fowl naturally put in their first 

 seasonal appearance near Tientsin two or 

 three weeks earlier than in the more south- 

 ern provinces. Hence their course is slowly 

 southwards, and as far as the sportsman is 

 concerned it terminates at Swatow. But 

 the flight line is a broad one, embracing 

 the area whose western limit may be defined 

 by the one hundredth meridian of east 



