CHAPTER VII. 
LIFE IN FOKEIGN LANDS. 
.“ where fly 
The happy birds, that change their sky 
To build and brood ; that live their lives 
From land to land.”. 
Tennyson. 
The bird leaving the country where it was reared 
migrates to a foreign land, and has but one advantage 
over man under similar circumstances,—it seems well 
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acquainted with every place, or at all events soon becomes 
at home in a strange country. 
The agile Swift whirls around minaret and date tree 
with apparently the same indifference as though it were 
circling about the old church tower at home; the Eagle 
finds itself equally at its ease in the palm “tope” as in 
the pine forests of the North; the Golden Oriole hides 
away amongst the thorny branches of the Mimosa with 
the same facility as amid the thick foliage of the oak in 
Germany; the Wild Duck swims just as happily in the 
sacred waters of the Nile as on the glassy surface of pond 
or lake at home. One and all, they soon accustom them¬ 
selves to their new habitats, find their food, and seek their 
roosting-places, as though they had been long residents 
in a foreign land. With all this they seem perfectly 
aware that they are strangers in the country, and show 
