236 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



now and then just shearing it with their beaks, in play or 

 in feeding. They make marks with them in the sand, deep 

 and shghtly curving, some nearly two inches long. What 

 those hieroglyphics mean I cannot say. Possibly they find 

 there some small sand worms. I never saw any swimming ; 

 they appear to be as averse to it as the true Terns ; but 

 they settle on terra firvia much more than they do. 

 At night they are as active as by day. Occasionally you 

 may see them raise their wings until they nearly touch over 

 the back. The expanse is about 39 inches, but of course 

 among many specimens there was a good deal of variation. 

 Eye almost black ; beak coral red at the base, shading off 

 into light straw-yellow at the tip. I think the females have 

 rather shorter beaks than the males. At the same time 

 our shortest was a male according to Mr. Hughes' dis- 

 section. 



Von Heuglin says at the end of autumn these birds 

 collect and travel in immense flocks (Syst Uebers, No. 

 IV)- 



■)f2iL Cinereous Shearwater, Puffinus kuhli, Boie. 



This was the last bird I saw. It was about an hour after 

 leaving Alexandria harbour, on the 20th of June, that the 

 first was seen ; afterwards I saw a good-sized flock or two. 

 After my return to England, M. Filliponi obtained a speci- 

 men. He writes that it was killed at the mouth of the 

 river, a few miles north of Damietta, and that two fishermen 

 who plied their trade at the place informed him that it was 

 a scarce bird, but that one or two were seen every year 

 in the autumn, that it always appeared at sundown, and 

 that they called it Oum-Goiirnayay which means hiding 

 mother. 



