40 



MIGEATION. 



Eastern 



Bed-legged 



Falcon. 



Local 

 migration 

 of Snipe. 



Alleged 

 double 

 breeding of 

 Stork. 



Heligoland. 



Natal is of such rank growth that large patches of veldt are burnt off every year to clear 

 the ground. The Pratincole (Glareola melanopterd), the Lapwing (Vanettus melanojderus), 

 and the Courser (C'ursorius rufus) are always on the look-out for these grass-fires, and feed 

 eagerly upon the scorched insects left in their wake. For days together flights of Pratincoles 

 pass over the veldt, perhaps not to be seen again for weeks or even months. The flights of 

 ants are also a source of great attraction to some birds. Por about a week early in March 

 a flock of perhaps three hundred Eastern Red-legged Palcons [Falco amurensis) frequented 

 the farm in Natal where I was stopping. They spent the day hawking like Swallows at a 

 great height in the air, and at night they roosted all together on the naked branches of some 

 tall trees in the bush. It is remarkable that these birds are not known to breed west of 

 Irkutsk, their summer-quarters being apparently confined to the valley of the Amoor in 

 South-eastern Siberia, though their winter-range extends from the eastern provinces of the 

 Cape Colony, through India, to China. 



The South- African Snipe {Scolopax (equatorialis) is only known from South Africa, 

 where it is a resident, breeding all over the country in the vleys or marshes. In exceptionally 

 dry seasons many of these vleys dry up, and the ground becomes too hard to be probed by 

 the soft bills of the Snipe in search of food. The Snipe are consequently obliged to migrate 

 for a season to vleys where there is still abundance of moisture • and thus it often happens 

 that large bags are obtained where a week before only a few scattered pahs could be found. 



One of the most conspicuous birds in Natal during the month that I spent in the 

 country was the White Stork (Ciconia alba). In riding across the veldt it was seldom that 

 one or two pairs were not visible, and sometimes large flocks collected together to roost 

 on the bare branches of some venerable tree in the bush. No bird could be better known 

 to the colonists, amongst whom it is familiar as the Great Locust-bird. But the only 

 instance that I heard of (and I made many inquiries) of the breeding of this bird in Natal, 

 was that of a pair which once bred on the ground nearly twenty years ago. Even 

 supposing the identification of the species to have been correct, the fact of the nest being 

 on the ground in a country where houses, rocks, and trees abound is presumptive evidence 

 that the bird which made the nest was unable to fly, and persuaded its mate to remain with 

 it in their winter-quarters. 



There are many places where migration may be easily studied. The fly-lines of a 

 great many species pass through Malta, and of perhaps still more through Gibraltar, but 

 in no place has more migration been seen and recorded than on the island of Heligoland. 

 This comparatively bare rock, which rises perpendicularly from the sea about 150 feet, 

 scarcely measures 200 acres in extent, and contains perhaps 2000 inhabitants. In 

 conjunction with Sandy Island, about a mile away, exposing say 50 acres of uninhabited 

 sand-hills and beach at low water, reduced to scarcely half that extent at high tide, it has 

 been visited by more species of birds than have been recorded from any country of Europe. 

 The fact is that Heligoland is the only part of the world of which the ornithology has 



