Birds. 5669 



elevation over the new English churchyard, and alongside and over 

 the old castle which commands the city ; and, when near a mineral 

 spring, called Ligea, on the left of the Gulf of Smyrna, on the 26th of 

 May, about sunrise, I saw, to my great delight, large flights of these 

 birds sitting so closely packed together upon the trees as to make 

 them look as if they were all covered with red flowers. On the 29th, 

 30th and 31st of May and following days up to the 5th of June the 

 flights were most numerous ; after this term they ceased, and the birds 

 became stationary. The flights were no longer rapid, high in the air, 

 large in numbers and directed towards the north, but slow, low-flying, 

 small in numbers and going in every direction of the compass. The 

 fields were full of them, and the gardens were full of them, and even 

 in the villages they sat on the roofs of the houses. These facts con- 

 vinced us that the birds were nesting in the hills surrounding the 

 Gulf, but in spite of all our efforts — owing to the dense ignorance of 

 the inhabitants and the unconquerable idleness of the peasantry — we 

 could obtain but very few eggs, for which we had to pay dear, and 

 that not until the 27th of June. As all of these eggs had the embryo 

 more or less developed, and were besides rotten, it was clear that they 

 had been taken whilst under incubation, and had been laid at least a 

 fortnight. The man who brought them told us that he had collected 

 them upon a hill seven miles off in the interior, and that the Turks 

 had caught him in the act, and beaten him and driven him away. 



" The possession of these eggs determined Herr von Gorzenbach 

 and myself to undertake ourselves the search for them at once, 

 and on the morning of the 30th of June we set out for the village of 

 Bournatut, where we were assured that the gardens and surrounding 

 hills were full of rose-starlings ; and we were quite rewarded, for not 

 only on the road which we passed along, but even in the streets of the 

 village, upon the moss-grown walls, and on the trees of the courts and 

 gardens, we had fine opportunities for making close observations on 

 these peculiar birds. Whilst we were waiting for a guide at the door 

 of one of the houses a young rose-starling flew through the window 

 into the room, and was instantly captured by the owner and given to 

 us. Many others were around us, following their mothers about with 

 a very peculiar chirp, and we at once perceived that we had come too 

 late to procure eggs. 



" After we had promised our guide a good reward for assistance, 

 we set off for the mountains. I must here mention that the rather 

 high and rugged hills which hem in the sides of the Gulf of Smyrna 

 and the Valley and Gulf of Bournatut, particularly towards the north, 



