LIFE IN FOREIGN LANDS. 
409 
plainly that they are not by any means wholly and totally 
contented with their lot, but would rather be at their old 
homes. The brightest skies are not always unclouded, 
and the earth in every land is sometimes chary of her 
hospitality : many a northern stranger finds, even in the 
south, stormy skies, rain, cold, starvation, and misery, 
against which it has to contend. 
Every bird when abroad seeks a locality corresponding 
in character to that which it selects at home, and in this 
temporary abiding-place carries on its duties, and passes 
its existence as it does in its native land. Birds of prey 
settle in forests, and on the banks of rivers and lakes ; 
Swallows, intermingling with Bee-eaters, wander about 
in the unknown regions of Central Africa ; Golden Orioles, 
Cuckoos, Rollers, Flycatchers, and Shrikes, betake them¬ 
selves to wooded glades, especially in the primaeval forests ; 
Larks and Pipits love the fields, the Water Pipit moist 
and marshy spots; the Yellow Water Wagtail trips along 
the banks of a mountain ‘ burn, ’ the common species courts 
the neighbourhood of buildings standing in the fields, while 
other Wagtails winter in swamps and on heaths; Red¬ 
breasts, Redstarts, Rock Thrushes, &c., in the mountains ; 
Starlings frequent the fields on the plains; Stonechats 
seek desert and solitary places among rocks, &c; Warblers 
choose woods and copses; Doves and Pigeons, woods and 
rocky precipices ; Cranes and Storks prefer rivers bordered 
by wild steppes; marsh- and water-birds frequent swamps 
and lakes. 
Egypt —“ that land situated like a bivalve between two 
shells”—is one of the principal winter-quarters chosen 
by birds migrating from the north. There the wanderer 
may suit his own taste : rugged and barren mountains, 
leading down to richly-cultivated and wooded plains; 
3 i 
