Old Belon, two hundred 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 Europe. 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 impatient of a sultry climate: but then I cannot help
wondering why kites and hawks, and such hardy birds as are
known to defy all the severity of England, and even of Sweden and
all north Europe, should want to migrate from the south of Europe,
and be dissatisfied with the winters of Andalusia.
It does not appear to me that much stress may be laid on the
difficulty and hazard that birds must run in their migrations, by
reason of vast oceans, cross winds, etc.; because, if we reflect, a
bird may travel from England to the equator without launching out
and exposing itself to boundless seas, and that by crossing the
water at Dover, and again at Gibraltar.
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