INTRODUCTION 



the direction of British non-coms. They dug Httle holes 

 and into each they pressed the roots of a tiny tree. They 

 were planting the quick growing Australian gum tree, 

 the eucalyptus. And why? That was exceedingly inter- 

 esting. 



Beside me strode Lord Allenby, tall and powerful, 

 mustached, grizzled, figure of a soldier, figure of a cav- 

 alryman, figure of a British general. Allenby was much 

 given to taking long walks among the scenes of the Holy 

 Land. Often, if you were with him on one of these ram- 

 bles, he would talk of birds. He was an enthusiastic 

 student of bird life, and even during the heat of cam- 

 paign he spent a little time nearly every day and would 

 snatch a few minutes from his war maps and staff con- 

 ferences to slip off to study the migratory birds that 

 linger in the Holy Land as they wing their way North 

 and South. 



The conqueror of the Turks had a Yorkshire sergeant 

 who was his companion and co-worker in ornithology. 

 In the hours when the commander-in-chief might be oc- 

 cupied with the anxieties of the plans of forced marches 

 and strategic moves in the region between Dan and 

 Beersheba, the sergeant from the north of England 

 would be stationed at some waterhole. And if some rare 

 species arrived he would report to the commander-in- 

 chief who would come down and watch the bird for a 

 while before returning to his work of planning the over- 

 throw of the Ottoman Empire. 



But when I was walking along the edge of the Plain of 



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