80 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 
About most of the towns it is found in prodigious swarms. In 
Jerusalem especially, countless numbers congregate, and sweep 
and dash close to the ground in the more open spaces within 
the city like a swarm of flies, building in all parts of the walls 
and public edifices. It was equally abundant in the north, 
but it breeds late. We obtained a considerable number of eggs 
fresh in the beginning of June in the towns at the northern base 
of Hermon, and while on the summit of that mountain saw 
many Common Swifts playing overhead almost out of sight, 
unaccompanied by the larger species. While its northern and 
western range extends beyond that of the other, it appears more 
limited towards the south-east, not extending south or east of 
the Himalayahs. 
Among the earliest of the Fissirostral migrants to return was 
the Hoopoe (Upupa epops ), the first of which we saw in Bashan 
at Um Keis, the ancient Gadara, on March 11th, in the same 
place in which, on the same day, we noticed the last Merlin of 
the season. Though appearing about the same time as the 
Roller and Bee-eater, I never saw it in company with them, nor 
could we detect it on its migration. It probably selects the 
night for its passage, as seems to be especially the case with 
those birds which do not ordinarily exercise powers of sustained 
flight. While we observed large flocks of some other migrants, 
which did not at once separate, but gradually dispersed them¬ 
selves over the country, after noisily recalling the incidents of 
their journey and holding long conference for one or two even¬ 
ings in some favourite common roosting-place, the quiet and 
retiring Hoopoe simultaneously appeared all over the country, 
in small parties, or as frequently merely in pairs. It never flies 
high, but gently steals from tree to tree—when at ease, with the 
wavy flapping of an Owl, or, when alarmed, with the more sud¬ 
denly jerking flight of a Woodpecker. Without being gregarious, 
it is a sociable bird, and one seldom finds one pair without others 
in Its immediate neighbourhood. I noticed the same habit in 
the oases of the Sahara, where great numbers of Hoopoes remain 
throughout the winter, not in flocks but in small parties distri¬ 
buted among the gardens and palm-groves, or even the yards of 
the houses, and, when once they have chosen a location, adhering 
