Bird Notes from the Nile. 13 



chosen as resting-places for the Storks, 

 which are only travellers in the land. 



•* Welcome, O Stork ; thou dost wing 

 Thy flight from the far-away," 



says the Armenian " Song to the Storks." 

 We often watched great flights of these 

 birds streaming overhead. When we were 

 at Kalabsheh in February a flight of Storks 

 passed us, and they were in such countless 

 numbers that several hours elapsed before 

 we saw the last of the stragglers belonging 

 to this party of wayfarers. It was amusing 

 to watch the Storks settling down on their 

 selected camp each night. The whole 

 flight would wheel round and round, high 

 in the air, and then, at what we supposed 

 must have been some given signal from 

 the leader, they would simultaneously 

 swoop down, a great mass of white and 

 black wings and bodies, red legs and beaks, 

 and the sand would become invisible 

 beneath a moving mass of birds. In a 

 few moments they would all be still, 

 settled down for the night, and by sunrise 

 next morning they were off again on their 

 long journey. Common Cranes too are 

 birds of passage, but the graceful 



