NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
429 
never-failing palm. The swallow and window martin thread the 
lanes and sport over the mouths of the wells in pursuit of the 
swarming mosquitos ; the hoopoe solemnly stalks on every dung- 
hill, a cherished and respected guest. These peaceful retreats 
seem to be rarely visited by any raptor more formidable than 
the kestrel, or little owl (Athene mimida)." Again : — " A few pairs 
of swallows {Hiru^ido ritstica) remained all the winter in each 
oasis ; but none of those observed were in mature plumage, and 
I therefore presume that it is only the younger and weaker birds 
who stay behind. The Arabs informed me that for one swallow 
they have in winter they have twenty in summer, and that they 
usually retire about the end of November, returning in February. 
Certainly very few had arrived by the end of February, though 
in the beginning of that month I saw myriads on the wing at 
Bishra, which must have remained for some time in that neigh- 
bourhood, as they did not reappear in any considerable numbers 
in Tunis till the beginning of March. But throughout the 
whole winter a few were to be seen wherever there was water or 
marsh. The natives are perfectly familiar with the fact of the 
migration of vast flocks to the south, which all go, as they say, 
to Timbuctoo, the El Dorado of Arab and swallow. A few 
pairs of the martin {H. urhica) may everywhere be seen through- 
out the winter, w^hile in summer, I am told, there is not a hovel 
without several building in the corners of the doorways, where 
their nests may generally be seen. Those which I shot were in 
immature plumage. Sand martins (H. riimrici) do not appear to 
winter in the Sahara, and can only, I imagine, be stragglers 
there at any time, as the weeds and oases afford them but" few 
conveniences for nidification. Both the white-bellied swift 
{Cypselus melha) and the common swift (C. apus) resort to the 
cliffs and the mosque-towers for nidification, but, unlike the 
swallow and martin, retire altogether in winter to still more south- 
ern regions. The common swift had not left El Aghouat during 
the first week in November." 
MiGRATOEY Birds leaving the South Coast. — Mr, G. 
Eowley, of Brighton, writes in the/&^5, ISTo. V. p. 101 : — " Living 
on the south coast in spring and autumn, I have good oppor- 
tunities of marking the arrival and departure of some birds. I 
have seen the swallows {Hirundo), over the sea, actually arrive 
and pass straight inland without a pause or the least show of 
weariness. Not so the chiff-chaffs and wuUow- wrens, which stay 
about the shingle at first till they recover their strength. At 
least I have seen them at five o'clock on a spring morning 
within a few yards of the waves. In autumn, on certain days 
