88 BRITISH BIRDS. 



After such a voyage, land, even though the alighting 

 place be but a pile of scrap iron among the docks, or a 

 miserable little bush in the sandy wastes, is only too 

 welcome to these over-sea migrants, as I shall hope to 

 show. 



It seems to me that for such a study as migration, 

 the area under observation should be sufficiently re- 

 stricted for an observer to have a comprehensive grasp 

 of all that is going on in that area. All our best records 

 appear to come from small and isolated areas — Heligoland, 

 Fair Island, lightships and lighthouses, may be quoted as 

 instances of this. If observations are made over a wide 

 field it can but be bewildering, one cannot feel certain of 

 departures, the birds may just have moved their position 

 a little, and not really have continued their migration, 

 arrivals may easily be overlooked, individuals un- 

 recognised. 



Considering the orders Passer es and Picarice only, 

 Port Said appears to possess about eight breeding 

 species, all of which are resident, so when it is considered 

 that the species actually identified in the autumn 

 numbered eighty (further observation might very well 

 increase the number to one hundred or more), it will be 

 realised that at Port Said there is not the same difficulty 

 in gauging the extent of a migratory movement as in 

 places like England, where individuals of many species 

 migrate over the heads, as it were, of resident individuals 

 of the same species. 



Now although, on the map, Port Said looks as if it 

 might be a most unrestricted observing area, and to 

 the eye of the steamship passenger, probably as if no 

 bird could ever be tempted to alight in such a sandy, 

 treeless spot, it really possesses in its physical features 

 the requisites of an excellent observing station. From 

 the accompanying chart (Figure I.), it will be seen that 

 just south of the town lies the enormous expanse of 

 salt water called Lake Menzaleh, which is very shallow 

 and fringed with innumerable swampy and muddy islets, 



