SIX MONTHS BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. II9 



common in more southern regions, though driven from its 

 stronghold in Egypt. 



A statement has been made that it is still a regular 

 migrant in small numbers to Lake Menzaleh, but for this 

 I could find no foundation. If it occurs, it is only as a 

 straggler, and the most unlooked-for rarity. The only 

 reliable instance that I could hear of its being seen of 

 recent date was by Captain Arkwright, who being familiar 

 with it in Abyssinia, may be supposed to know the bird 

 well. He saw one at the Faioum. There are also two said 

 to be Egyptian, but I attach very little credence to them, 

 in the mixed collection at the Kair-El-Aiainy at Cairo, and 

 two or three more in our British Museum with "Egypt" on 

 their stands, but I should not dream of placing the slightest 

 reliance on these after my experience of wrong localities 

 placed upon British Birds in the national collection. 



A few years ago I saw an Ibis in a garden at Eastbourne 

 in Sussex, the property of Mr. Hurst. It had been shot in 

 the neighbouring parish of Bulverhithe, and being only 

 winged, and that slightly, was purchased and kept alive by 

 a huckster. From him it passed to the keeper of a public 

 house, and from him to Mr. Hurst. It was generally sup- 

 posed that it had escaped from a ship, as vessels come 

 rather near to that portion of the coast, but there is no 

 proof that it was not a voluntary migrant. As it was in 

 good condition and not shy, I was able to make a careful 

 examination and compare it with a specimen oi IbiscetJiiopica. 

 There was a difference, and the conclusion I came to was 

 that it was the Indian Ibis melanocepJiahis* 



Other birds were venerated in Egypt besides the Ibis, 

 though it is as hard to understand what guided the ancient 



* In Gerbe's edition of "Degland" (II. p. 327), it is stated that the 

 Prince Bonaparte turned the Ibis cet/uopica of Egypt out of the 

 European hst, and admitted /. melaiiocephalus of India in lieu thereof. 



