138 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



at any rate I think they are bolder. I have seen one swoop 

 at a Booted Eagle, and I have also seen one feather a 

 Hooded Crow which ventured too near its nest. 



I 6b. Lesser Kestrel, Falco ccnchris (Cuv.) 



On the 13th of April, as we were riding across the wide 

 treeless plain of the Memnonium, we saw a great many 

 Kestrels. They were almost too scattered to term a flock : 

 the game they were after was large insects. On shooting 

 a pair I found to my delight that they were the Lesser 

 Kestrel, which I had been long looking out for. They 

 really had not seemed any smaller than the Common 

 Kestrel, which in appearance and flight they exactly re- 

 semble. This flock consisted of both sexes ; one I shot 

 was a hen (cf Ibis, 1864, p. 236), the other was a cock, 

 which still retained immature plumage on the wings. 



17. Sparrow Hawk, Accipiter nisus (Linn.). 



Very common, and I am surprised that it has not an 

 Arab name, but the natives of the land of Ham are "lum- 

 pers," not "splitters." I need not recapitulate the habits of 

 so well known a bird. There are many stories extant of 

 its audacity, to which the following is now to be added. I 

 was sitting on the deck of our Nile boat, or Diabeyha as it 

 is called, with my friends, discussing the fragrant Cerani, 

 when a terror-stricken Sparrow flew under the divan almost 

 between my legs, and behind him came the pursuer in the 

 shape of a mettlesome little cock Sparrow-Hawk. He was 

 baffled of his prey this time, and before we could rise from 

 our seats he had made good his escape, and the Sparrow, 

 perceiving that the coast was clear, flew away also, but still 

 in evident trepidation. I expected to see the chase re- 

 newed, but the Hawk had clearly had a fright, and the 



