120 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



people in their choice, as it is to comprehend why the 

 wisdom of parHament should enact that the Chiff-chaff be 

 protected and not the Willow Wren (35 and ^6 Victoria, 

 chap. 78). 



Captain Shelley thinks the Kestrel was made sacred 

 because it destroyed that great pest of Africa, the locust ; 

 but then did it not destroy also the much-loved scarabcEiis, 

 the most sacred of all the emblems of palmy Egypt .-* I 

 believe, if it zvas sacred, that it was chosen out of many for 

 affecting the haunts of men, building its nest as it yearly 

 does in the walls of the houses. Did we in England deify 

 a bird as sacred to home and hearth, the Martin would be 

 selected, or the Swallow, which always court the society of 

 man. But the Kestrel was not the sacred emblem of Horus. 

 That bird was probably the Lanner Falcon {Falco aroeris of 

 Wilkinson, vide "The Ancient Egyptians," V., p. 210), pour- 

 trayed on the monuments with a dark moustache. Dr. 

 Adams, it is true, treats of the bird of Horus as the Kestrel, 

 but I am of opinion that all his remarks really apply to the 

 Lanner (cf. Ibis, 1864, p. ii). 



With regard to the identification of the numberless birds 

 on the monuments, it is a subject which has been never 

 fully investigated. Before going through the few memo- 

 randa which I made respecting it, I would draw attention 

 to the statement in Murray's guide book that the names are 

 written under some of the animals, which ought to assist 

 considerably in elucidating their species. 



In the Museum of Mariette Bey at Boulak, there is an 

 undoubted portrait of two Red-breasted Geese, a species 

 not given in Shelley's "Birds of Egypt."* They are half 



' The Red-breasted Goose has another and a far more recent claim 

 to be called an Egyptian bird. The late Mr. Allen, while resident in 

 Alexandria, obtained a specimen (not adult) which is now in Mr. 

 Crichton's possession. It is figured in Gould's " Birds of Great Britain." 



