SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 21/ 



chial tubes were over five inches in length, in spite of which 

 the Stork is voiceless.* 



179. Black Stork, Ciconia nigra (Linn.). 



Rather common, but I believe we did not see any in the 

 Delta. Mr. Buxton shot an immature bird at Erment, and 

 an old one near Benisouef. The latter measured 38^ inches 

 from tip of tail to end of beak ; expanse 53^. A mass of 

 half-digested fish was pressed out of its mouth. Captain 

 Shelley says — '"It is an unsociable bird, never congregating 

 in flocks or associating with other species" (0. c, p. 265 j; 

 but at Abou-Girg we saw twenty-four with Spoonbills, 

 Herons, and Ducks in a flock. A single one is sometimes 

 seen near a pool in the fields. I rather think it is not found 

 in Egypt in the summer. We however saw one as late as 

 May 17th, a very fine bird ; it passed over me almost within 

 gunshot. 



180. Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, Linn.; 

 "Abu Malaka," or " Daouas," or "Midwas." 



This singular bird was only seen twice in the Delta, but 

 several were obtained up the Nile, and one at the Faioum. 

 On one occasion a discharge of four barrels into a flock 

 resulted in nine specimens, but they were mostly young 

 birds, and got very dirty from the mud where they fell. In 

 March I have counted as many as 103 in a flock. In April 

 the numbers were generally smaller, but on the 22nd about 

 a hundred were seen together. It is evidently migratory. 



* The Stork is a rare bird in Norfolk. In 1861 one paid a visit to 

 the parish of Northrepps and alighted in a large marl-pit, now disused, 

 and close to a public road. The keeper went after it and would cer- 

 tainly have shot it, but a boy put it up. The bird then flew to Wood- 

 bastwick, where it was killed. It contained an egg ready for exclusion 

 (cf. B. of Norfolk, II., 181). 



