2il Col. R. Meinertzhagen on the [Ibis, 



at the end of October. A party of thirty seen at Ranileh on 

 16. X. were on passage. An adult female shot on 7.iii. at 

 Ramleh had a wing measuring 519 mm. 



On 3. ix. at Rafa an adult bird soaring- at about 2000 feet 

 was mistaken by our anti-aircraft batteries for an enemy 

 aircraft, his white under sides glistening in the morning sun, 

 and making him look just like an aeroplane at about 15,000 

 feeK It was not till he flapped his wings in response to a 

 rather too-close shell that the error was discovered. 



Ciconia ciconia. 



C. c. ciconia (L.). 



Common on spring passage, but not seen in anything like 

 the same numbers in autunni. 



The earliest record in spring is on 4. ii., when many 

 hundreds were seenatYebna; again on 8. iii. a few passed 

 north, but the main movement did not commence till 15. iii., 

 when about two thousand appeared near Gaza in 1917, and 

 passage was continuous till about 30. iii. Many were seen at 

 Jericho on 2.iv. and at Samakh at the south end of Galilee 

 on 21. iv. After this only belated parties were noted till 

 3. v., on which date Sladen found many birds dead on the 

 Wadi Gaza. This seems a disaster not uncommon to the 

 White Stork which })asses north too late or travels south 

 too early {cf. Novitates Zool., Feb. 13, where large flocks, 

 half-dead from thirst, descended in the Sahara). Occasional 

 flocks were seen as late as early June. 



The only records of autunni passage are of a few small 

 parties seen flying west along the coast near Rafa on 28. vii., 

 a few at Beersheba on 4.ix. and 13. xi., and some at Ramleh 

 on 19. X. No main })assage was observed. 



We found no evidence of breeding, though Tristram 

 asserts a few remain to nest. 



Platalea leucorodia (L.). 



jNono were obtained. Single birds or pairs were seen 

 near Gaza from 28. iv. to 11. v., and from 26. xi, to 29. xi. 



