MIGRATION NEWS.
Interest in the migration of birds is now so general that as a rule we get information of the arrival of the better-known species at widely separated stopping places on their routes ; and can in some measure time the journey. This year a number of swallows arrived in South Italy on "Leap Day," and began at once to spread northwards. There is a long gap before the birds reach England ; but these Italian bands will never cross the Channel. Recent evidence goes to prove that most of the visitors to Britain, if not all, travel more directly north, coming from Africa by way of Spain and that very popular route, among all sorts of birds, the shores of Portugal. It is probable, in regard to the swallow tribe and many seaside birds, that we have a closer connexion with West than East or Central Africa. Cuckoos and those rather lazy fliers the nightingales, as well as other warblers, move in a more westerly direction. As for the storks, which we do not see, they reach Germany from a base extending from
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