MIGRATING. 
383 
unnaturally, Why do many of our birds of passage travel 
so far into the interior of the glowing continent of Africa ? 
That they find food, and to spare, much more to the 
northward is certain, and yet still they persist in con¬ 
tinuing their journey hundreds of miles further. What 
is it that they seek, when they can find what is necessary 
so much nearer home ? To these questions we can for the 
present give no satisfactory answers. 
We have, however, learnt something more of the way 
in which birds travel. The next thing we have to 
examine is the manner in which they assemble previous 
to starting on their voyage. Who among us has not 
observed Swallows before their departure, when gradually 
collecting together they at length form numerous flocks 
and settle in the morning, or towards evening, on the 
roof of the old church ? For hours they keep circling 
round all the houses in the village where they have bred 
or been reared, as though taking a final look round and 
bidding adieu to the old haunts ; another meeting is next 
held, after which one and all seek a new roosting-place, 
—some large pond thickly overgrown with reeds and bull- 
rushes, where they “ camp out,” as though they had already 
started on their journey. Our other feathered penates, 
the Storks, also congregate together before leaving. The 
individual members of this assemblage come for miles 
round to the same spot, where, after having apparently 
held council, they each return to their several homes ; 
this is repeated several times, until one fine day the 
whole body take their final departure, inviting the 
laggards to join them as they pass by. Starlings 
conduct themselves in a very singular manner, they 
vanish regularly with their young soon after the nesting- 
season, from the places where they have bred, for the 
