320 TRAVELS IK UPPER 



than that of the quails. They arrive and re-assem- 

 ble on the sandy shores of JEgypt in very nume- 

 rous companies. It is difficult to conceive how a 

 bird, whose 'flight is heavy, and which cannot long 

 continue on the wing, which we see alight in our 

 fields almost as soon as in motion, should venture 

 to traverse so vast an extent of sea. The islands 

 which are scattered over the Mediterranean, the 

 vessels which sail along its surface, serve them in- 

 deed for resting-places and for shelter when the 

 winds become stormy or contrary to their direc- 

 tion. Bat even these asylums, which the quail 

 has not always strength enough to reach, and the 

 distance of which frequently occasions its loss, 

 prove also places of destruction to it. Too 

 much fatigued to escape, they permit themselves 

 to be taken easily upon inhospitable shores; they 

 are caught without difficulty by the hand on the 

 rigging of ships ; and when excess of weariness 

 prevents them from rising high enough to perch 

 upon it, they dash violently against the hull, fall 

 back, stunned by the shock, and disappear in the 

 waves. Whatever may be the dangers of a long 

 voyage, which these birds seem unqualified to per- 

 form, whatever diminution of number the troops 

 of these feeble travellers may undergo in the pas- 

 sage, therearrives, notwithstanding, sogreat a mul- 

 titude in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, that 

 the quantity to be seen there is really past belief. 



The 



