242 . RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



217. Little Cormorant, Phalacrocorax pygmaiis, Tern. 



The Little Cormorant is probably far rarer than the 

 Long-tailed African Cormorant at the Faioum, as I only- 

 shot one — a male, on the ist of June. We at once noticed 

 it as something different, from its entirely black bill and 

 pouch, dark brown eye, and brown head. All the African 

 ones we shot — amounting to fifteen in number, had red or 

 reddish eyes and yellow bills. The rest of the plumage 

 was also very different. In P. pyguiLVUs it was more 

 silky, and the scapulars and wing coverts, instead of being 

 grey, broadly tipped with black, were nearly as dark as 

 the rest of the back, and each feather was rimmed, not 

 tipped with black. The only white upon the bird was a 

 certain number of hair-like feathers very sparsely scattered 

 over it. 



The two Little Cormorants shot at the Faioum in 

 February, which Captain Shelley describes at p. 296, (o. c.) 

 were correctly named I have not a doubt. Perhaps the 

 Long-tailed one is only a summer inhabitant. Von Heuglin 

 says that P. pygmceus was only met with by him in Lower 

 Egypt in winter and spring (Syst. Ueb., No. 752). 



218. Great-crested Grebe, Podiccps cristatns (Linn.); 



? " Chaer." 



On the desert side of Birket-El-Kairoun, there is a piece 

 of water which I suppose forms part of the great lake in 

 winter. It is fringed with a luxuriant growth of reeds, the 

 very place for a pair of Great-crested Grebes to nest ; and 

 here on the 8th of June I saw two beauties, but so expert 

 are they in diving at the flash, that though I got within 

 twenty-five yards I failed to shoot one. 



