SIX MONTHS BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 215 



they would not quit until I was quite under them. One 

 fine specimen was shot upon a sandbank, but that was 

 exceptional. 



The flight of this bird is slow : when high up, battling 

 against the wind, he makes no headway, but remains 

 stationary : his short tail gives him an absurd appearance. 



Two is the normal number of occipital plumes. I shot 

 one with three, but they were short ones. My father has a 

 Norfolk specimen with six.* A Night Heron weighs about 

 li lbs. 



Wilkinson, who was no ornithologist, thinks that "the 

 Tufted Benoo " was the Buff-backed Heron, which he mixes 

 up in his description with the Lesser Egret. I agree with 

 Dr. Adams that the pictures are much more like a Night 

 Heron. They vary, but one or two I think are unmistak- 

 ably the Night Heron, which accordingly has the honour of 

 being one of the four sacred birds of Egypt. 



My father has determined this to be the Alcedo cEgyptia of 

 Hasselquist, in immature plumage, from the description in 

 the Latin edition. 



178. White Stork, Ciconia alba, Bechst. ; " Billerique." 



Egypt is a famous country for collecting the Heron and 

 Stork tribe : I doubt if any other country has a greater 

 number of species or individuals. The subject of this note 

 is familiar to everyone from boyhood as the household bird 

 of the continent, emblem among the Germans of affection 

 and constancy, whom it is pious to foster, impious to slay. 

 But the feeling which protects it in Europe, (and in the 

 Algerian " Tell,") does not yet extend to Egypt, and the 



•At p. 4913 of the Zoologist, Mr. Rodd records the occurrence of a 

 Cornish specimen with ten ! 



