CHAPTER V. 



WHERE THE MIGRANTS GO. 



ALL through the autumn we have been watching 

 the gradual departure of birds from their summer 

 haunts. By the time November's cold and 

 cheerless month arrives, but very few indeed 

 of these summer birds are left ; they have all 

 sped southwards with the sun. Let us devote 

 a few pages to these little migrants after they 

 have left their northern home ; let us follow them 

 south and learn the secret of their destination. 

 Many there are that go to the remotest regions of 

 Africa ; many more that go only half that distance. 

 We may conveniently divide the winter quarters 

 of our migratory British birds into three fairly 

 well-defined districts or zones. The first of these 

 embraces the south of Europe, and the narrow 

 border of fertile country along the African coast- 

 line, which may be expressed as the Basin of the 

 Mediterranean ; the second zone consists of the 

 Great Desert, and the entire Soudan, probably as 

 far south as the equator ; whilst the third zone ex- 

 tends from the equator to Cape Colony. It must, 



