THE WHITE PELICAN 187 
thousands, passing low along the river on their way 
north, and although fired at several times they still 
kept streaming onwards in one continuous flock.” 
Nowadays you will quite possibly see immense 
flocks going south in November, or north in the 
spring, but they will all be flying high and well out 
of gun-shot. The largest flock I ever saw was in 
December of 1907 when living at Deir-el-Bahari. 
I was working outside the hut there, when some 
noise made me look up, and I saw an amazing sight, 
hundreds and hundreds of these great birds flying 
round and round in circles high above the chalk 
cliff. This was about 2 p.m., and they remained 
thus slowly circling round and round till nearly 
5 P.M., when gradually in small detachments they 
dwindled away, flying in a southerly direction. At 
times they came sufficiently low for me to see dis- 
tinctly the yellow pouch hanging from the under- 
bill, but then again they would rise in great spiral 
curves to such a height that even with my pet glass 
they were almost invisible. With every new curve 
they showed some alteration of colour, so that some- 
times they seemed a coral pink all over, and then 
again with some altered angle in relation to the sun 
they were a pure snow white. The two hours or 
more that they were over just this one spot where 
