540 Capt. A. W. Boyd on Birds of the [Ibis, 



better opportunities at Rouiani and at Mohainmedia on the 

 coastj a few miles north of Romani. 



The direction taken by migrating birds in the autumn was 

 interesting: Ducks in remarkable numbers were continually 

 passing in September (always too far out at sea for the 

 purposes of identification), and they, Herons, Waders, &c. 

 all passed from east to west — along or parallel to the coast. 

 Ou some days in September countless thousands must have 

 passed, flock following flock for hour after hour, and always 

 in the same direction^ from east to west. The smaller birds 

 however, the Quail, Warblers, Wheatears, and such species, 

 which were passing in great numbers at the same time, were 

 moving (so far as my own observation went) always from 

 north to soutli, and during the daytime I not infrequently 

 saw them come in from the north over the sea and pass 

 straight on into the desert, where the scrub for weeks was 

 full of Warblers, Shrikes, and Buntings, in every direction 

 — a remarkable change compared with the scanty resident 

 bird-population of a few weeks earlier. 



Later in the year, however, — at the end of October and in 

 early November — I noticed that Skylarks in great flocks 

 (and Starlings to a certain extent), which had just arrived, 

 were passing at Romani, a few miles from the coast, in the 

 east to west direction, which the Ducks followed two months 

 earlier. 



During our progress east as far as El Arish little bird-life 

 was to be seen in the desert : migration was then practically 

 over, and it is evident that no great numbers of birds are 

 resident there ; there were, of course, the usual desert 

 species, such as the Pallid Shrike {Lanius eleyuns)^ the 

 Bifasciated Lark {Certhilauda alaudipes). Crested Larks, in 

 patches of suitable ground, and other familiar species, but 

 often a day would pass and a few^ Brown-necked Ravens be 

 the only birds seen. 



It was quite impossible to collect any specimens, and I 

 was therefore unable to identify more than a tithe of the 

 Warblers and Buntings in their autumn plumage. A 

 collector would find much of interest in Sinai. 



