SIX months' bird collecting in egylt. 235 



the last diabeyha on the river, which accounts for our 

 getting the Scissorbill and sundry other species not met 

 with by Messrs. Adams and Smith. Its novel beak is an 

 eccentricity of nature which no one who confines himself 

 merely to British birds has any idea of, the mandibles being 

 flattened perpendicularly, and the lower one projecting be- 

 yond the upper a long way — 1| inch in one specimen, which 

 I shot. That, it is true, was the longest. It varies much, and 

 in another the projection was only f of an inch ; but I refer 

 the reader to Captain Shelley's picture, which will give a 

 much better idea than any description of mine. 



We were lucky enough to see a great many, and to watch 

 their habits under very favourable circumstances, especially 

 at Erment, Silsilis, and Keneh. The first appearance was 

 on the 20th of March, near the spot mentioned by Captain 

 Shelley. We had landed to shoot some fowl on the sand- 

 bank, and the reports put up a flock of about a dozen 

 Scissorbills. We at once left the fowl to take care of them- 

 selves, and after some manoeuvring I succeeded in shooting 

 three of the coveted birds. Their unusual length of wing 

 makes them look so much larger than they really are, that 

 they easily pass between large shot. Terns are generally 

 easy birds to get near, and the Scissorbills, however different 

 in other respects, proved to be no exception. When we 

 afterwards met them at Silsilis five were killed at one shot ; 

 and that day a curious thing happened. A Scissorbill was 

 shot at about thirty yards' distance, and when I picked it 

 up a gunwad was sticking to its wing. 



There is good reason to believe that they follow the 

 course of the Nile as far as the Delta. I obtained confirma- 

 tion of the occurrence of one at Damietta (Ibis, 1864, 

 p. 243), and they were seen by us at various points as far 

 north as Minieh, and again two were shot at Benisouef, and 

 two more were seen on the 21st of May, within twenty 

 miles of Cairo. They fly very low over the water, every 



