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OBSERVATIONS ON THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 

 IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 



BY 

 COMMANDER H. LYNES, R.N., M.B.O.U. 



I. — AUTUMN MIGRATION AT AND AROUND PORT SAID. 



(Continued from page 51.) 

 E. Height. 

 Travelling birds — I mean those whose evident intentions 

 were to proceed and not to alight — were never seen either 

 near the land or at sea ; and in the harbour, all arriving 

 birds seemed to be in a state preparatory to alighting, 

 either flying in quite low like the Quails, which rose from 

 just above the surface of the water, only to clear the 

 houses and shipping ; or dropping down from what may 

 have been a good height, slowly making for cover as 

 indicated by an uncertainty in direction. 



On the sea near the land, birds seen were almost 

 invariably quite close to the water's surface, a matter of 

 a few feet only. It is, however, a significant fact that 

 outside of a radius of about ten miles from land, whether 

 in Egyptian or other waters, no birds ever came near the 

 ship (except such as appeared to have lost their bearings) 

 whose appearance could not be directly ascribed to some 

 untoward event such as wind or rain, and on these 

 occasions they would fly around, follow, or alight on 

 board the ship. 



This only bears out what is doubtless another generally 

 accepted fact, viz., that sea passages, if not also land 

 passages, are at any rate in the majority of cases, carried 

 out at a height at least above the normal limit of human 

 vision, and that a descent is only made when the bird 

 intends to alight. 



The position relative to the Egyptian sea-shore, at 

 which the descent is made, appears to vary with the 

 species. Quails seem always to arrive at the coast-line 

 only a few feet above the surface of the water. I have 

 also a few somewhat similar notes for the Corn-Crake, 



