Northern Egypt was functionally a welcome island to weary migrants 
between the desert to the south and the Mediterranean to the north. 
A collaborative research program, the Palearctic Migratory Bird Survey 
(PMS), was therefore instituted in the summer of 1966, involving 
scientists of the Smithsonian Institution and NAMRU-3. It was decided 
to include the Yale Arbovirus Research^ Unit as the third member of the team 
effort because of its past association with both other institutions 
and because of its outstanding past work in the field. Funding was pro¬ 
vided for three years, subsequently extended to four years, by ARPA 
through the Army Surgeon General’s Office and by the Smithsonian Foreign 
Currency Program. A fifth year of support has been made possible jointly 
by the Smithsonian Research Foundation and Smithsonian Foreign Currency 
Program. 
The Smithsonian group was adopted on a guest investigator status 
by the Department of Medical Zoology at NAMRU-3 and operated simultaneously 
with two Anericans hired through Washington and an Egyptian staff hired 
partly through NAMPJj- 3 . All went relatively smoothly for two migratory 
seasons until June 1967 when the outbreak of hostilities forced NAMRU-3 
to temporarfJly suspend operations in Egypt and the Smithsonian to move its 
bird study to Cyprus. In the fall of 1968, however, we were able to re¬ 
turn to Cairo and with some restrictions to resume the survey. The field 
work continued until the beginning of the fall season 1970 when field 
work was discontinued because of security in the area of operation. Thus, 
we had six migration periods of study in Egypt and.two in Cyprus during 
2 
