366 
Mr. W. H. Simpson’s Fortnight 
long files of them are ever flying through the channel—an up 
and down train several hundred yards in length being often 
in sight at the same time. These are the ames damnees of 
sultanas who got the sack under the old regime, each separate 
train being perhaps part of the establishment of a different 
Sultan. Not that all these poor restless spirits were necessarily 
frail ones : harems must have been expensive in those days, as 
they were lately proved to be under Sultan Abdul Medjid, and 
when the inmates became ugly or strong-minded, the sack was 
more economical than a pension. 
To the north of where these earth-cliffs terminate, the lakes, 
backwaters, and rough sand-hills intervening between the sea 
and the uplands are sure to be favourite places of resort for 
Waders and Wild-fowl during the spring and autumn flights; 
these being from their position a place of call as it were on the 
direct line of East-European migrations, a sort of halfway house 
between the South and the North. Pelicans bound for the mus- 
quito-haunted delta of the Danube ; Ducks, Geese, Plovers, and 
Snipes, of many species besides those which breed here, on their 
way to Poland and Russia; Stints from their African winter- 
quarters going to Lapland, Siberia, and the farthest north,— 
all are likely to be met with here at their respective seasons. Ex¬ 
cepting my two visits to Sud Geul, I never had an opportunity 
of examining this district; but on one of those occasions a flock 
of Pelicans (probably Felecanus onocrotalus) , consisting of several 
thousands, was noticed moving northwards at an immense height. 
Tribes of Cossack fishermen prey upon the fowl hereabouts; 
they have the reputation of being very active eggers. We our¬ 
selves took the nest of a Wild Goose (believed to be Anserferus), 
I noticed also Stilts ( Himantopus candidus), which undoubtedly 
breed here, the Double Snipe, Common Curlew, Common Snipe, 
and Kentish Plover amongst the Waders, besides the Hooper 
{Cygnus musicus), Common Wild Ducks in great quantities, the 
Shoveler, Pochard, and Garganey, and some other ducks not made 
out with equal certainty. To the great numbers of Larus minutus 
allusion has already been made. Strange to say, the birds of 
prey, so numerous generally in the Dobrudscha, were not well 
represented here, possibly for want of appropriate breeding- 
