* * * * Migrant Birds
A passage, to which the attention of students of bird migra- tion ought to be directed, appears from a Palestine correspon- dent in the latest (and best) number of The Countryman. Such sights are very rarely vouchsafed, and records of the migration of one species are much commoner than such a mixed bag as this, reported by W. H. P. to the one quarterly that has news in it.
" Spring had only just come to the little valley among the barren red mountains of the Lebanon. We awoke to find the whole valley swarming with birds. Where before there was hardly a bird to be seen, now every bush and every tree was alive with them, all fidgeting about, eagerly snapping up the early insects. The majority were Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Garden Warblers, with a sprinkling of Barred Warblers, while here and there we caught a glimpse of Pied Flycatchers and Redstart-, and down in the herbage by the side of the stream were Nightingales from which came bursts of song. Several times we heard the queer catlike calls of Golden Orioles. All day long the rush of migrants continued. When• I went into • my tent I disturbed from wider the bed a Nightjar."
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