190 
Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 
occasion. The birds seemed to have lost their usual 
instinct of direction. They roosted for the night under 
the awnings of the bridge deck, and many of them came 
into the music room, and even into the lower cabins of 
the vessel. At the first streak of dawn the next morning: 
almost all of the birds set off, steering almost due south¬ 
west, but some of the Swallows were so tired and utterly 
done up as to be unable to fly and remained on their perches 
under the awnings until they collapsed, falling off one by 
one and dying. There were three or four different kinds of 
Swallows in the same flock, some had black throats, some 
bronze, some white. Some had the long pointed tail, with a 
large white spot on each tail-feather and a few white 
feathers on the back, whilst many of the birds had the short 
tail, as seen in Indian House-Swallows and Martins. The 
Swallows were also accompanied by several yellow Wagtails, 
five or six Doves, and a few Hawks, which occasionally 
picked up a tired Swallow. We tried to revive some of the 
birds as they dropped helplessly on deck by giving them a 
little water—it did revive them for a time, but they soon 
died. I have been up and down the Med Sea eight or ten 
times per year during the last thirty years, but never before 
saw so many birds on passage, nor have I ever before seen a 
Swallow unable to proceed on its way after a night's rest on 
the ship. The weather was exceedingly hot at the time, but 
all other conditions were normal. The birds were all fully 
feathered and in good condition; there was a considerable 
amount of droppings from them, shewing that they could not 
have been very long without food. 
I am, Sirs, your obedient servant, 
W. H. Haughton, 
Aden, October 3rd, 1908. Commander, R.N.M., 
Commander P. & 0. s.s. ‘ Persia.’ 
Sirs, —During a stay of thirteen months in Mussian 
Turkestan (from Sept. 1907 to Oct. 1908) and the 
Khanate of Bokhara, I formed a collection of about 730 
specimens of birds and mammals in the Zarafshan Valley. 
