SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 1 37 



14. Western Red-legged Falcon, Falco vespertiuus 



Linn. 



I purchased an immature one at Damietta. 



15. Merlin, Falco cesaloii, Tunstal, 



Middle Egypt appears to be the habitat of the Merlin, 

 but I did not find it so abundant as some have done. All 

 that we saw were, I believe, cocks, which agrees with former 

 observations, 



16. Kestrel, Tinnnncnlus alaiidarius (G. R. Gray) ; 

 " Sakre ahmar balad." 



In a family so largely represented as the Accipitres, the 

 familiar English Kestrel was by far the commonest, and so 

 tame were they, in the Delta especially, that I have often 

 seen stones thrown at them before they would fly away. 

 They were less common and decidedly shyer in Upper 

 Egypt, probably because they are more exposed there to 

 the incursions of the gun-carrying tourist. 



I think that in North Africa Hawks go to nest earlier 

 than with us. Already in January the Kestrels were paired, 

 and some of them nesting, for the most part choosing crude 

 brick walls and palm trees. One of my companions saw 

 one feeding its young on the 13th of January at the Barrage, 

 that beautiful bridge which spans the Nile at its bifurcation. 

 They are plucky birds, these Egyptian Kestrels. Once I 

 winged a Senegal Dove, and almost before it touched the 

 earth, a hovering and hungry Kestrel bound to it, nor did 

 he at once give up possession to the lad who went for it. A 

 Sparrow-Hawk served me the same trick one day, but it is 

 more remarkable with a Kestrel. 



It is said that Egyptian Kestrels are smaller than English ; 



