H. LYNES: MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 37 



harbour for a few days' gunnery and torpedo practice 

 every two or three weeks. At Port Said the ship was 

 moored close to the shore, birds on passage were 

 constantly flying by and settling in, or even flying 

 against, the rigging, and I was able to get ashore in the 

 early mornings and in the evenings fairly frequently. 

 Less than one hundred yards from the ship was the court- 

 yard of the " Navy House " containing some six trees, 

 whose foliage was a great attraction to migrants, and 

 consequently to me, as one could go over there, see what 

 there was to be seen, and get back to the ship in about 

 ten minutes. 



Since most of my conclusions are based upon observa- 

 tions made in Egypt during the autumn migration, I 

 propose to deal with that first, then with the spring 

 migration at Crete and, finally, with migration at sea, 

 in the Mediterranean. 



1. — AUTUMN MIGRATION AT AND AROUND PORT SAID. 



Geographically, Port Said seems admirably suited for 

 observing bird migration. Hosts of birds breeding in 

 European Russia, and Central and South-eastern Europe, 

 winter somewhere in tropical or sub-tropical Africa, and 

 they must converge, on their southward passage, to the 

 comparatively narrow, fertile strip of land between the 

 great deserts of Sahara and Arabia,* since it appears that, 

 whatever may be the case in spring time, in autumn, 

 when they lack the spring excitement of going up north to 

 breed and many of them are in partial moult, birds do not 

 progress at such a pace as would enable them to venture 

 across the deserts, for fear of starvation overtaking them. 



Port Said is in the centre of this strip, and being right 

 on the sea-shore, is the first land to be seen by those 

 birds that cross the Mediterranean Sea, after what must 

 be the long over-water passage of their whole southward 

 migration. 



* Palmen's route No. 4. 



