SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 1 47 



that does not hold its pair, and the Nabuk, the Cypress, 

 and all the other trees which afford shade and shelter, are 

 acceptable to them. Again, they are equally at home on 

 the flat roofs of the mud hovels, or down the inside of the 

 " shadoofs ; " or if there are any dismantled mills or caverns, 

 there you will see the " Booma " bobbing to his own music 

 and turning his head round to get a look at you. They 

 certainly pair early, and are more diurnal than most Owls 

 for I have seen them about and on the feed at noonday. I 

 have marked one rise into the air some thirty feet, catch an 

 insect — apparently a locust — and return to his perch on a 

 Sont tree. 



33. Roller, Coracias garrula, Linn.; "Zeturney." 



No one who has not seen a Roller can form an idea of 

 its exceeding beauty. Fortunately for them, they do not 

 arrive in Egypt until long after the majority of the travellers 

 have left. The first was seen on the 9th of April, though 

 it was half a field off us its colours showed out brilliantly ; 

 and it was not until the 22nd that we saw a second. They 

 never became at all common. Indeed I must consider 

 them much rarer than the Golden Oriole. Food, small 

 frogs, etc. 



34, Blue-cheeked Beeeater, Merops cegyptins, Forsk ; 

 M. siiperciliosiLS (Ibis, 1871, p. 75). 



This handsome species was seen on the 29th of March. 

 Flocks of a score or so were going north, and we often 

 heard their clear note before we could see them. A week 

 later and the Common Beeeater began to come in great 

 numbers, when the Blue-cheeked totally disappeared ; but 

 in May we again found a io^N pairs settled apparently for 

 the summer. At the Faioum there were a good many 



