Birds by the Wayside 115 



in bas-relief a portrait of the Madonna, are sold for foreign 

 consumption. These furnish an opportunity for souvenirs 

 that probably no American lets escape. It was noticed that 

 the young bachelor of our party was the heaviest buyer, how- 

 ever, his thoughtfulness and generosity seemed limitless. It 

 was he who found that homemade American pie could be 

 ordered from the American Colony store, and who at three 

 dinners treated us to pie, the only pie seen during ten months 

 of travel. It was he who at Smyrna remembered to buy toys 

 for two fretful babies on ship-board, though there were fa- 

 thers and grandfathers in our party, to whom the thought 

 did not occur. 



Our visit to Bethlehem was made on Sunday afternoon. 

 Those of us of Puritan blood had fortified our souls against 

 the pomp of ceremonials by attending the morning service 

 at the American Mission. There within plain walls was a 

 simple form of worship " in spirit and in truth,'^ quite as 

 appropriate to the wilds of Africa or America as to the sa- 

 cred city of Jerusalem. 



From Jaffa to Constantinople. 



The steamer that carried us to Constantinople was engaged 

 in coastwise transportation and made stops at Haifa, Bey- 

 rout, Vathy on the island of Samos, and at Smyrna. The 

 voyage occupied a little more than a week. Passengers were 

 discouraged from going ashore at Haifa so we staid with the 

 ship. The birds seen from its decks were Terns and two spe- 

 cies of Gulls : a species of the Herring Gulls and a species 

 of the Black-headed Gulls. These were seen in all the other 

 harbors, except at Vathy the latter species was missing. 



It was on the drive to Dog River to see the rock-hewn 

 tablets of ancient conquerors that most of the birds about 

 Beyrout were seen, and these were not many : A few old 

 acquaintances in the form of Hooded Crows, Swallows, Sand 

 Martin, a Fantail Warbler and a Raven were noted. While 

 we were passing through a Greek settlement, one of Bey- 

 rout's suburbs, a boy offered for sale a string of bright- 



