H. LYNES: MIGRATION OF BIRDS. 77 



Then again, the larger insectivorous species would 

 naturally find it more lucrative to disperse in order to 

 obtain their grasshoppers and beetles, while the seed- 

 eaters would be more likely to find enough food for their 

 whole party in a small patch, where a particular kind of 

 plant flourished in a suitable stage for consumption. 

 Species that appeared always solitary, whether flying in, 

 resting or feeding, were the Grey Wagtail, Nightjar, 

 Hoopoe, Cuckoo, Quail, Corn-Crake, Water-Rail and 

 Spotted Crake and some of the Raptor es. 



Some of these solitary birds were, of course, young of 

 the year, presenting the old difficulty of explaining how 

 such individuals could find the way to their winter 

 quarters, along a route they had never traversed before. 

 When it is remembered, however, that these observations 

 only concern one of the breaks in the journey and that 

 all passage flight was probably carried out at a height 

 beyond human vision, the fact of certain species flying 

 in to alight, resting and feeding singly at Port Said is 

 not wholly antagonistic to the theory that these birds 

 are guided by old birds of their own or other species 

 travelling along the same route. 



Species resting and feeding in more or less scattered 

 bands, one, two, or even more, in each bush of a 

 particular area, but with little, if any, concerted action, 

 were Wheatears, Whinchats, Redstarts, Shrikes, and 

 Golden Orioles. Turtle-Doves were not uncommonly in 

 twos. The majority of species rested and fed in parties, 

 composed of one or a few family parties, if one may 

 judge from the proportion of adults and young birds. 

 The masses of warblers seen on certain occasions, I am 

 sure, had no concerted action as a whole, but simply 

 represented the accumulation of numbers of smaller 

 parties in a confined area. I think that about fifty was 

 the maximum number of birds we saw in any " organised " 

 party, the species being Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails, 

 Sky-Larks, and perhaps Linnets. 



