SIX MONTHS BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. I93 



there will probably be some which have not got up. As they 

 fly a very short distance and go very slowly, it follows that 

 when a colony of ten or twelve are found they are generally 

 nearly all killed. The only thing which saves them is the 

 propinquity of their reedy haunts to the villages, and the 

 native population who come out to witness the " battue," 

 and are very much in the way. One colony was established 

 in the village cesspool — a small tussocky place, less than a 

 quarter of a acre — within forty yards of the houses. The 

 rushes chiefly frequented by this species seemed to be the 

 common flowering sort, with a triangular stem. Painted 

 Snipes should not be sought for in the Snipe-marsh, or the 

 inundated rice fields : they prefer small reedy ponds, with 

 tussocks such as I describe. Sometimes we found these 

 places inland, but in general they were only separated from 

 the river by the tow-path. Here they run about almost 

 like rats, and might often be shot before they get up. One 

 took refuge in a brick-kiln, and two, strange to relate, were 

 seen to perch on houses ! When only winged, I have seen 

 one hiss with fright at the person who picked it up. Their 

 edible qualities are not remarkable. After leaving the 

 Delta we supposed that we had done with them, but a 

 single specimen — the first solitary one we had seen — was 

 shot at Benisouef We flushed it from a piece of ground 

 where two of us had been looking twenty minutes for a dead 

 Sandgrouse ; so reluctant are they to rise. At the Faioum 

 we saw some beautiful specimens, and shot one which had 

 an egg inside it. They were mostly in moist spots among 

 the tamarisks, but I saw one squat down in the canal at the 

 edge. It was done to escape detection, and really it looked 

 exactly like a lump of mud in the water. 



I do not know whether it has been observed that in June 

 the neck is bulged out in a curious way, and the skin of 

 that part very much stretched. 



At Alexandria I saw two unblown eggs with the old 



