412 Canon H. B. Tristram's Ornitholoyical 



cloud dashed from the river's channel through the opening, 

 and immediately deployed in the plain to the west. At first, 

 as they approached, they might have been taken for the Com- 

 mon Starling ; hut Avhen we looked down on the rosy backs 

 flashing beneath us, it was plain enough that we had come on a 

 migration of the Pastor. Hardly had this flight passed, when, 

 turning our eyes up the river, we saw another cloud gliding, 

 like a balloon, just over the ravine of the Orontes towards us. 

 About a quarter of a mile above us was a small islet in the 

 centre of the stream, of perhaps a quarter of an acre in 

 extent. It was covered with rich long grass. The balloon 

 hovered over it for a moment, then rapidly expanded into the 

 shape of an inverted parachute, then flattened out, then be- 

 came a spiral column, then, like a water-spout, dropped on 

 the islet, which, in less time than it takes to write it, was 

 suddenly transformed from a green oasis to a black patch. 

 Not a trace of green could be seen ; the whole was simply a 

 mass of birds, so closely packed that the rose-colour was in- 

 visible — the black of heads and wings had absorbed all else. 

 After remaining here a few minutes, as if to take breath, the 

 mass suddenly rose and dashed in a long line through the 

 fosse. They took about a minute to pass. I fired once at 

 random (there was no need to choose a thick place), and an 

 hour afterwards I picked up five dead birds, all of them in 

 full plumage. "We waited for some time, as flight after flight, 

 in rapid succession, passed down the river's channel, often in 

 strange forms — wreaths, balloons, columns — deploying into 

 long lines, never leaving the river's course, but generally high 

 in the air above it. But all of them as they approached this 

 cutting dropped from their aerial height, and leaving the 

 tortuous stream, struck right through the cleft far below us. 

 The plain westward is uninterrupted, and here they at once 

 spread themselves out, and, after skimming very near the 

 ground, at length alighted, probably in quest of locusts. 



From Kelat Seijar we pursued for two days a north-easterly 

 course over the Syrian plain, and through the whole joui'ney 

 flock after flock of Pastors passed us, all pursuing a due west 

 route. At one place we came suddenly, after mounting a gentle 



