266 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



the vessel being then about 290 miles from the 

 Cape. 



Passing eastward through Sinai and Palestine, 

 where Canon Tristram has observed the Swallow 

 in December, we find it common in the north-west 

 provinces of India during the winter months, at 

 which season also it occurs in Japan, China, the 

 Andamans, and Ceylon. There is no evidence 

 that it ever visits Australia or New Zealand, 

 although Gould described a Swallow from Torres 

 Straits (under the name Hirundo fretensis), which 

 is certainly very like our well-known H. rustica, 

 and might be a young bird of that species in 

 autumn plumage. 



Did space permit, it would be as easy to trace 

 the movements of most of our summer migrants 

 during the various months of the year, for (as 

 above stated) they are now tolerably well known. 



It is a curious fact that with many migratory 

 birds (as, for example, the Nightingale and Black- 

 cap) the males arrive here several days before the 

 females. I have never met with any satisfactory 

 explanation of this ; but it seems to me it may be 

 accounted for in this way. The rate of speed in 

 flying, depending upon individual strength, is 

 different in the two sexes, and if they were to 

 start together, the superior strength and wing 

 power of the males would result in overtaxing the 

 strength of the hen birds, which, in their efforts to 

 keep pace, would exhaust themselves, and succumb 

 on the journey, thereby disorganising the flock. It 

 is probably for this reason that the sexes travel 



