RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 81 



Most travellers who have visited Constantinople by the 

 passage of the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora, may 

 have noticed a bird not quite so large as a Pigeon, abundant 

 in that neighbourhood, though occasionally seen in other 

 parts of the Archipelago, as at Napoli and Vourla, which 

 must have excited their curiosity and surprise. " Every 

 day," says one of the many authors who have noticed it, 

 " they are to be seen in numerous flocks, passing up and 

 down the Bosphorus with great rapidity. When they arrive 

 either at the Black Sea or Sea of Marmora, they again wheel 

 about, and return up the channel, and this course they con- 

 tinue, without a moment's intermission, the whole day. They 

 are never seen to alight, either on land or water ; they never 

 for a moment deviate from their course, or slacken their speed ; 

 are never known to search for, or take any food ; and no 

 visible cause can be assigned for the extraordinary and rest- 

 less instinct by which they are haunted. They fly very near 

 the surface of the water ; and if a boat meets a flock of them, 

 they either rise a few feet over it, or it divides them like a 

 wedge. Their flight is remarkably silent; and though so 

 numerous and so close, the whirr of their wings is scarcely 

 ever heard. They are so abundant in the Sea of Marmora 

 that near twenty flocks have been counted in the passage of 

 a few miles. One reason why they have escaped the close 

 attention of naturalists is, that no person is permitted to kill 

 any bird upon the Bosphorus without incurring the displeasure 

 of the Turks, who, although very indifferent as to the lives of 

 human beings, are extremely averse to take away the lives 

 of animals."* 



Such is the singular account given by an intelligent 

 traveller, to which we are enabled to add a few particulars, 

 partly confirming and partly contradicting it. The bird is 

 called by the Turks, Armidau, and has been, hitherto, 

 erroneously considered a Kingfisher,")" from which species it 

 is, however, far removed, proving, on examining a beautiful 



* WALSH'S Constantinople. See also Sketches in Greece. 

 \ In Andreossi's work, Sur le Bosphore, it is termed Halcyon Voya- 

 geur. 



G 



