102 EUROPEAN MIGRANTS IN EAST AFRICA 
and hardly seem able to go more than a few yards at a time 
should travel all the way from Europe to the Cape is really 
wonderful. 
At present very little is known of the time, or the route they 
take, and it is in hopes of interesting some of the naturalists 
in British East Africa that I am writing. British East Africa 
is really half way between the winter and summer haunts 
of the European migrants, and a series of dates when birds 
pass through East Africa on their southern journey, and again 
on their return trip would be of the greatest interest. In 
Europe the most accurate records of arrivals and departures 
are kept, and in South Africa similar records are being made. 
The trouble here will, I am afraid, he the same as in South 
Africa, namely, the fact that most of the migrants are rather 
insignificant birds and by no means well known. 
There are a few, however, that everyone knows. For 
instance, the big White Stork that is often seen in thousands 
near grass fires — the English Swallow — Red-backed Shrike. 
And the English Land-rail or Corncrake, another bird that hardly 
seems able to fly a hundred yards in England. 
The wading birds of Europe are very strongly represented 
on our coast during the winter months, and it seems strange to 
hear the wild call of the Curlew, the tittering whistle of the 
Whimbrel, and the various familiar calls of the Ring-Dotterel, 
Sanderling, Turnstone, Little Stint and other waders that one 
knows on the British coast. 
Hearing these old calls takes me back to a rocky bit of 
coast line in the north, where I spent many an hour crouched 
in a stone blind waiting for the tide to rise and put the wading 
birds off the flats, and set them flighting along the edge of the 
incoming tide within reach of my gun. 
It is not only on the coast that w T aders are to be seen, but 
about October and March every little stream and pool has 
some wader or other. The Common, the Wood and the Green 
Sandpipers, Little Stints, Ruffs, Greenshanks and others are 
everywhere. Many of these spend the whole winter with us, 
but by far the greater number pass south, returning again three 
or four months later, and are apparently very regular as to 
tbeir times of passing. The Great or Solitary Snipe, for instance, 
