238 



The Birds of Prinkipo Island. 



ers' crops one or two months in the year, 

 do not tend to increase, but on the contrary 

 to decrease with the spread of cultivation, 

 because their numbers are limited by the 

 available food supply at all seasons, and 

 cultivation tends rather to contract than to 

 increase it. Hence it follows that isolated 

 settlers have their crops ravaged by as 



many birds as would be distributed over 

 the whole region if all were under cultiva- 

 tion; a conclusion that will doubtless have 

 due consideration attached to it in the re- 

 commendations of the department. The 

 country will want all these birds by and by, 

 and their maintenance even at a cost will 

 prove a solid investment. 



THE BIRDS OF PRINKIPO ISLAND. 



WE have swallows who make their 

 dudish toilets early in the sum- 

 mer. They cleave the clear air of the 

 mountain sides, dart out of the vineyards, 

 and flit amid the pine trees, never seem- 

 ing to alight. They are quite tame and 

 fearless. One morning, while sauntering 

 up the mountain, I notice that two of these 

 birds are following me. When I stop they 

 hover about my head; sometimes within 

 arm's length. I marvel. What does it 

 mean ? Am I near a nest ? Are these the 

 father and mother of a brood, as to whose 

 safety the parents are apprehensive ? I 

 move on. Still they follow, darting far 

 down into the valley, then sweeping on 

 their electric wing to the very crown of the 

 mountain and about the crown of my hat. 

 I reason that they have been domesticated 

 at the hearthstone or in the chimney, and 

 so I solve the problem. 



A month or so ago, one morning, a cloud 

 of blackbirds, our own cornfield larcener, 

 took possession of the woods of the isle. 

 They are known here as petty crows and 

 do much damage. They soon left for better 

 foraging. 



This isle is distinguished for quail. They 

 come about the first of September in great 

 flocks. Already some of the pioneers have 

 heralded their approach. From the hills 

 opposite our villa shots are heard in the 

 morning. When the season is full it is 

 dangerous to be about the woods, the shots 



are so numerous. These birds are migrat- 

 ing from the grain plateaus of Russia to 

 the balmier fields of Egypt. Their resort 

 here reminds me of the wild pigeons in the 

 West in Ohio in my old district in Licking 

 county, where for years they were wont to 

 come and roost as regularly as the seasons 

 came. They made the air black. They 

 covered trees and fences with their multi- 

 tudes. The quail here are not so numer- 

 ous; but they fill the shrubbery. Some of 

 the rich folk of the isle are buying up pre- 

 serves to limit their destruction. After a 

 few weeks' rest, during which they are 

 massacred by the thousands — even by boys 

 with sticks — the survivors take flight over 

 the sea to San Stefano, or the shores of the 

 Hellespont, en route for " winter sunbeams." 

 Antigone rises sheer 500 feet. Her sides 

 are full of caves. What are those white 

 flowery specks mingled with the rock and 

 greenery ? We soon ascertain, for have 

 we not discovered and aroused the gulls 

 and cormorants that here nestle ? They 

 come out of their nooks by the thousand 

 and keep up such a clamor that it seems 

 like the angry protest of a bird mob against 

 the invasion of their haunts by our launch. 

 These are the birds which make Marmora 

 and the Bosphorus so full of life, even 

 when the hot air silences all other noise 

 and motion. They are never disturbed or 

 killed by the inhabitants. They have a 

 monopoly of the isle. They are gentle as 



