549 



first week in March." Passing eastward, again, we find it common in Savoy on passage ; but it 

 never remains there to breed; and in Italy it is also common, breeding in many parts of the 

 north, and wintering in Southern Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia ; and this is confirmed by Mr. A. B. 

 Brooke, who speaks of it as very common in the latter island in winter, but adds that none ever 

 remain there to breed. Mr. C. A. Wright includes it in his list of the birds of Malta, and says 

 (Ibis, 1864, p. 142) that it passes in flocks from November to March, and that in 1861 some 

 were shot as late as the 14th April. Lord Lilford found it very common in Albania throughout 

 the islands and in the mainland in winter, but never observed any later than the beginning of 

 March ; and both Von der Miihle and Lindermayer speak of it as being a common winter resident 

 in Greece, frequenting the marshy low lands ; but it does not seem ever to remain there to breed. 

 It breeds, however, in Southern Germany, and is, Dr. Fritsch states, common during the breeding- 

 season in the damp plains of Bohemia. I observed it in the early spring on the Lower Danube ; 

 and in Southern Russia it is stated by Professor von Nordmann and Mr. Goebel to be numerous 

 during the breeding-season, arriving, according to the latter gentleman, in the Uman district 

 about the latter half of March, and leaving late in September or in October. It is a winter 

 visitant in Turkey and Asia Minor; Strickland states that large numbers arrive in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Smyrna when the cold weather sets in ; and Canon Tristram says that he found 

 thousands on the cultivated lands in Palestine, but only during winter. 



It not only visits North Africa during winter, but some few individuals breed there. 

 Captain Shelley says (B. of Egypt, p. 231) that it is very plentiful throughout Egypt up to 

 the end of March, at which season they pass northward, leaving but few to breed south of 

 Cairo. In Nubia they are much less abundant. Von Heuglin writes (Orn. N.O.-Afr. p. 995) 

 that it visits Egypt and Northern Arabia in the winter and spring, and is observed singly or. 

 in small parties ; Mr. von Pruyssenaere observed it in December on the banks of the White 

 Nile. Referring to the above statement made by Captain Shelley to the effect that it breeds in 

 the Nile delta, he says positively that, in the localities he (Von Heuglin) visited, it is only a 

 migrant, and does not even occur every year. 



Though, as a rule, it is only a winter visitant in North-western Africa, yet some few 

 certainly remain to breed. Loche says that it is generally distributed in Algeria during the 

 winter, and that a few penetrate as far as the Chamba country, where he shot specimens in 

 December. According to Colonel Irby, Favier records it as numerous near Tangier in winter, 

 arriving in October and November, and crossing back again to Europe in February and March. 

 Colonel Irby himself observed three or four pairs late in April, which were nesting near the lakes 

 of Ras-Dowra, at least eighty miles south of Tangier. 



It occurs in the Canaries and at Madeira. Dr. Carl Bolle states (J. f. O. 1855, p. 176) that 

 it is " a well-known winter visitant, and sometimes appears in great numbers at Fuerteventura ;" 

 Professor Newton possesses a specimen from Madeira; and Mr. Godman, who states that it 

 occurs in the central group of the Azores, says that he saw a specimen said to have been shot 

 in Terceira. 



To the eastward it is met with as far as Japan. Menetries states that small flocks are met 

 with on the roads near the Terek river, and on the shores of the Caspian at Kouby. Mr. 

 Blanford writes that he never observed it in Baluchistan, Southern Persia, or on the plateau, 



