242 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
rest. The sight of a quail in these circumstances is fitted to give 
one a vivid conception of this strange instinct of migration. Here 
is a bird which lives on the ground and for six months in the year 
never uses its wings except when“ put up” by some enemy, and then 
only to fly a hundred yards and drop again ; but when the sun enters 
the sign of Aries, it starts off without fear from Alexandria, say, to 
Italy or Greece, Hundreds are often killed in Malta, I believe, when 
they arrive too tired to make much effort to escape, and, without 
doubt, hundreds perish in the sea; but I suppose the majority 
reach their destination. They fly very low, almost touching the 
water, and rising to every wave. I suppose this is to escape the 
force of the wind, , All through the Red Sea and also, between Aden 
and India migratory birds are met with. On this voyage I noted the 
following :--Quails, a hoopoe, one or two yellow wagtails, a wheat~ 
ear or bushchat, a light brown robin witha rufous tail, a species of 
bunting, and several tree warblers. One of the last spent several days 
on the ship and was very hungry, hunting for insects in the joints and 
crevices of iron plates, poor bird |! When within one day’s sail or so, of 
Aden, ships are often visited by peregrine falcons. I imagine they go 
far out to sea in pursuit of sea birds, When they settleon the ship they 
are often so exhausted that the sailors climb up therigging and catch 
them. Atthe southern end of the Red Sea gulls and other sea birds 
are on all sides, but disappear as soon as we pass Aden, After that we 
fall in with two very interesting birds, which have been given a place 
among our Indian avifauna, the Tropic bird (Phceton indicus) and 
the Noddy (Anous stolidus). The former, a smoky coloured bird, as 
restless as the petrel, skims the surface of the water in all directions, 
but never follows the ship ; the latter flies at a great height with a 
seemingly laborious flapping of its short wings, and drops into, the 
water like a kingfisher. If its snowy plumage and long tail do not 
attract attention, its incessant screams will. Of fish in any form, except 
salt or tinned, one sees very little indeed during a voyage ona steamer, 
but on this occasion when we drew near Perim the khalasees threw © 
out a large hook with a bit of white rag wrapped round it. This 
trailing from the stern of the vessel, looked very like a small fish 
rushing through the water, and succeeded in “taking-in” a large 
dolphin, not the mammal which I have mentioned already, but a 
species of fish which all sailors persist in calling the dolphin, Its 
proper name is the coryphene (Coryphana hippurus). I had so often 
found myself at variance with ancient mariners as to what was a 
