SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 113 
EGYPT. ALGERIA. 
Tree Pipit - - April 23rd March 18th 
Sand Martin - February 2Ist - » 22nd 
Sedge Warbler - April 5th » 24th 
Redstart - - March 31st » 27th 
Nightingale - April 13th » 31st 
Greater Whitethroat » 4th - April 1st 
Turtle Dove » 2nd - » ith 
Spotted Flycatcher » 22nd » 24th 
Roller - » 9th » 25th 
It.is in April that the great tide of birds press northwards, 
and ours, which happened to be by many weeks the last 
Diabeyha up the river, just hit off the feathered pilgrims, 
as I had calculated it would do. A mighty army they 
were, bound many of them for the Delta, many of them for 
the more northern shores of Europe. By the 29th the main 
troop had passed: the rush was over. The Tree Pipit and 
the Golden: Oriole, the last of the migrants, had arrived. 
When these stragglers had passed we saw no more birds, ex- 
cept the residents and a few Turtle Doves, Rufous Warblers, 
etc. which had found their journey’s end sooner than the 
main body, and were already commencing the duties of 
incubation, not to migrate any more until the returning 
wave in autumn should impel them south again. 
I am not one of those who think that migration in Egypt 
is very dependent on the overflow of the Nile I know 
that the early writers attributed it to that, but they seem to 
have ignored the fact that the vernal and autumnal move- 
ments take place just as much in any other country, though 
I can well believe that it is nowhere more observable or 
more patent to everybody’s eye. I am of course aware that 
the Nile at Christmas offers a splendid resort to all water- 
birds, and countless throngs avail themselves of it, but 
these very birds show that they are not wholly governed 
by the subsidence of the waters by not quitting before 
March, a period when the river is comparatively low, and 
I 
