Queer Conveyances

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 39.

Queer Conveyances.

SOME birds are known to fly long distances carrying their young on their backs. Small birds take passage across the Mediterranean Sea on the backs of larger and stronger ones. They could not fly so far. Their strength would give out and they would drop in the water. Along the northern shore of the sea, in autumn, these little birds assemble to wait the coming of the cranes from the north, as people wait for the train at a railroad station. With the first cold blast the cranes arrive, flock after flock. They utter a peculiar cry, as of warning or calling. It answers the same purpose as the ringing of the bell when the train is about to start. The small birds understand it. They get excited. They hasten aboard, scrambling for places. The first to come get the best seats. If the passengers are too many, some will have to flit back to the hedges till the next train. How they chatter good-byes—those who go and those who stay. No tickets have they, but all the same they are conveyed safely.

Doubtless the great birds like this warm covering for their backs. In this way the small birds pay their fare. And it is these last who must be out in the wet if it storms. The little passengers are of different species, like Americans, Irish, Germans, and Chinese traveling together in cars or steam-ships. Their journey takes them through the air, high above the wide sweep of waters. They are close companions on the way. By and by they reach the beautiful south country. There they build nests and sing sweetly, as they build here and sing for us in our happy summer-time. Indeed, God cares for the sparrows.—Sel.