OF SELBORNE 



235 



gether, both spring and fall : during which 

 periods myriads of the swallow kind tra- 

 verse the Straits from north to south, and 

 from south to north, according to the season. 

 And these vast migrations consist not only 

 of hirundines but of bee-birds, hoopoes, oro 

 pendolos, or golden thrushes, &c. &c. and 

 also of many of our soft-billed summer birds 

 of passage ; and moreover of birds which 

 never leave us, such as all the various sorts 

 of hawks and kites. Old Belon, two hun- 

 dred years ago, gives a curious account of 

 the incredible armies of hawks and kites 

 which he saw in the spring-time traversing 

 the Thracian Bosphorus from Asia to Eu- 

 rope, Besides] the above-mentioned, he 

 remarks that the procession is swelled 

 by whole troops of eagles and vultures. 



Now it is no wonder that birds residing 

 in Africa should retreat before the sun as it 

 advances, and retire to milder regions, and 

 especially birds of prey, whose blood being 

 heated with hot animal food, are more im- 

 patient of a sultry climate : but then I can- 

 not help wondering why kites and hawks. 



