Bird Notes from the Nile. ii 



CHAPTER II. 



<#^ 



" And above, in the light 

 Of the starlit night, 

 Swift birds of passage wing their flight 

 Through the dewy atmosphere. 



• ' I hear the beat 

 Of their pinions fleet 

 As from the land of snow and sleet 

 They seek a southern lea. 



• ' I hear the cry 

 Of their voices high 

 Falling dreamily through the sky, 

 But their forms I cannot see." 



— Longfellow, " Birds of Passage. ^^ 



THE river flowing " through sands of 

 gold " has for thousands of years 

 been a highway from the heart of 

 Africa to the ** Northern lands " for the 

 migratory birds which in late autumn and 

 early spring pass in myriads up and down 

 the course of the mighty stream. These 

 sometimes fly so high that they seem to 

 be only passing clouds, till a powerful 

 field-glass "resolves" them into countless 

 birds, which, in well -drilled battalions, 



