Birds of Astrakhan. 227 



PORPHYRIO C.ERULEUS. 



The Purple Gallinule apparently breeds on the delta of the 

 Volga, as many are caught at the moulting-season. It is not 

 seen in winter. 



PHCENICOPTERUS ROSEUS. 



On the 20th of July, 1876, Henke found a colony of four 

 hundred and nineteen nests of the Flamingo on a sandbank in 

 the middle of a salt lake on the Kirghiz steppes, so far from 

 the shore as not to be visible from it. The nests were conical 

 heaps of mud, very close together, and some of them as high 

 as two feet. The birds had broken through the hard salt 

 crust with their bills in order to take from underneath it the 

 black salt mud of which their nests were built. The top was 

 dished out to a hollow, in which one, two, or three eggs were 

 laid. Half the eggs were hatched, and the young in down 

 were very shy and difficult to catch. When Henke was there 

 the ground was dry and white with salt ; but with a different 

 wind he calculated that the water was sometimes a foot high 

 near the nests. At night the Flamingoes go in hundreds to 

 a freshwater lake to get the young of a large kind of frog to 

 feed their young a distance of five and twenty miles. 



CYGNUS OLOR. 



The Mute Swan is a common summer visitor, and breeds 

 on the delta. 



CYGNUS MUSICUS. 



The Wild Swan is only seen in spring and autumn on 

 migration. 



CYGNUS MINOR. 



Bewicke's Swan is only seen on migration, and is not so 

 common as the larger species. 



ANSER CINEREUS. 



The Grey Lag Goose is a very common summer visitor, 

 and breeds on the delta. 



ANSER ALBIFRONS. 



The Great White-fronted Goose is only seen in autumn. 



