H. LYNES: MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 73 



and there is little doubt that fatigue resulting from 

 the passage across the Mediterranean was its direct 

 cause, since it was rest, and not food, that was first 

 taken. Just as on our own eastern sea coast the 

 autumnal North Sea migrants are to be sought during 

 the day in the thickest bushes, tufts of grass, bean 

 fields, and other cover — or as Gaetke in Heligoland 

 found them in the scanty bushes and potato fields of 

 that island, so at Port Said the birds of passage, on 

 alighting, took possession of the bushes, trees, and 

 thickest cover they could find, and when such-like natural 

 cover was insufficient to cope with the influx of the 

 migrants then they overflowed into all sorts of odd 

 places like hotel verandahs, or on board the shipping in 

 'the harbour. Under the latter circumstances each 

 species seemed to do its best to select something more 

 or less corresponding to its own natural environment. 



Thus, on board the " Venus " in the harbour, the 

 Water-Rail flew into the officers' smoking room through 

 the open scuttle ; the Corn-Crake and Quail would alight 

 on the quarterdeck and after a nervous glance around 

 dive hastily behind a six-inch gun ; the Nightjar would 

 fly silently about the " bosky glade " formed by the 

 funnels and boats' davits, resting now and then on a 

 skid-beam as being the nearest approach to a bough ; 

 while the Willow- Wrens and other small warblers would 

 perch on the masts, yards and rigging. Ashore, the 

 Redstarts might be found in hundreds among the piles 

 of scrap iron in the docks, and Golden Orioles in the little 

 trees on the Bund crowded with, people, while a heap of 

 old tin pots and kettles or a roll of barbed wire in the 

 extension works was a quite likely hold for a Quail. 



Naturally, this characteristic was not without its 

 exceptions, for instance, one evening we saw a Corn-Crake 

 perched in the topmost foliage of a sixty-foot Aleppo pine 

 tree, and other like incongruities were noticed from time 

 to time. 



Song, during the whole of the most important period 



