I06 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



life beyond that, according to my experience, save perchance 

 at its very fringe a few Chats, and the Crested Lark which 

 is omnipresent ; but nothing, I am convinced, to repay a 

 long and weary trudge into the Sahara. It is not the 

 desert, it is the ripening barley and the strips of lentils 

 which will tempt the sportsman and beguile him to keep the 

 Diabeyha waiting with a favourable wind, for these teem 

 with Quails so fat, so tender, and so luscious, as to more 

 than merit the high praise which has been bestowed on 

 them. It would give an English yeoman a fit to see the 

 Hoivadjas walking through the standing crops, but not a 

 word does the farmer of Egypt say. He looks on with 

 perfect indifference : no complaint escapes him. Even a 

 smile lights up his stolid face, and he appears to be inwardly 

 applauding when his tame Pigeons go by, and a successful 

 shot brings them down. Different races have different 

 ways. Truly de gnstihns, etc. But he really cannot stand 

 it when the Howadja walks among his water-melons for a 

 paltry Rufous Warbler, and he does feel called upon to 

 object to his trampling down such valuable plants for such 

 insignificant game. Accordingly it is only due to him that 

 his wrath should be appeased with a backshish of powder, a 

 present more acceptable than the copper alloy coins, of 

 which every dragoman thinks it necessary to bring a 

 sackful. 



All this time there has not been a cloud overhead, and 

 only a close scrutiny into the clear blue sky will reveal the 

 Griffon Vultures which circle far up, like dots, in the vault 

 of heaven ; yet nothing escapes them from their dizzy 

 height. If there be a carcass or any putrid matter about a 

 village, the Neophrons are the first to find it out, by their 

 eyes and not by their nostrils. " Pharaoh's Hens " are a 

 marked feature in the zoology of Egypt, and valued for 

 their sanitary qualities, for they are the birds which preserve 

 the public health by clearing away the filth and festering 



