172 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



there considered rather rare. It is almost always on the 

 ground in the fields and not in the desert* 



109. Linnet, Linota cannabina (Linn.). 



Flocks were sometimes seen in the Delta, and specimens 

 shot. I had noted down " Cairo, February i8th," as the last 

 appearance of this Finch ; but to my surprise, on the 21st of 

 April I saw three near Girgeh, but unluckily failed to get 

 one. The cock which I brought home, marked the 13th of 

 February, has the red breast which in England characterises 

 the breeding plumage. 



Obs. Buntings. 



We saw no Buntings at all. This seems singular. 

 Canon Tristram obtained seven species in 

 Palestine. 



no. BiFASClATED Lark, Certhilauda alaiidipes 

 (Desfontaines) ; C. salvini, Tristr. 



I am rather surprised that Captain Shelley did not find 

 this bird commoner. I saw it twice in the market at Cairo, 

 and twice in our shooting excursions, viz., at Gow and Gebel 

 Silsilis. At the latter place a flock of about a dozen ap- 

 peared to have taken up their quarters on a little sandy 

 waste about two miles from the river. Shooting a portion 

 of them did not frighten the rest away, as I saw them every 



* Collectors naturally think that if they go a couple of miles inland 

 beyond the beaten track of tourists they will find birds plentiful ; but in 

 reality there is nothing beyond the limits of vegetation, a limit which 

 varied greatly, but never in the largest plain we came to, extended be- 

 yond a few miles from the banks of the Nile. 



