124 BIRDS OF THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 



on this coast during the prevalence of strong north or 

 easterly winds, shows that these soonest exhaust their 

 powers of flight, causing them to drop directly they 

 make land, instead of proceeding, as they doubtless 

 would have done with a fair head wind, directly for- 

 ward to their winter quarters*. 



That those seasons with the prevailing winds from 

 S. to W. are never good Woodcock years, is well 

 known to all our coast sportsmen j the probability is, 

 that at these times, as they do not alight, they pass 



* Mr. A. L. Adams, writing of the migrations of Quail in 

 Malta, remarks, "The coming and going of Quail are very re- 

 gular as to time j and their rarity or abundance in spring and 

 autumn is generally to be accounted for by the prevalence or 

 otherwise of favourable winds." * * * * "Favourable winds 

 rarely brought us any Quail ; and an absence of winds or a lull 

 had the same effect as regards the migratory species generally ; 

 from which it may be supposed that, as long as there is no ob- 

 struction, the majority pass across the Mediterranean without 

 making any stoppage here whatever, and only when fatigued by 

 adverse winds. On the other hand, it is not often I observed 

 that birds drift before the wind, perhaps for the reason that 

 their feathers are disarranged, and that they slant, as it were, 

 to use a nautical phrase, 'with the wind on their quarter;' and 

 the Maltese believe that the Quail keeps one wing motionless 

 and raised like a sail, and thus crosses like a vessel." # # * 

 " In several instances, when large flights of Quail made their 

 appearance, I invariably noticed the wind blowing strong on the 

 shore at the time ; and seldom when they arrived was the 

 weather clear ; in fact the stronger the sirocco or a N. wind, and 

 the denser the sea-haze, the more likely was there to be abun- 

 dance of Quail, as if the flock had suddenly come on the island 

 unawares." Natural History and Archceology of the Nile Val- 

 ley and Maltese Islands, page 99. 



