4 Ur. A. L. Adams on the Birds of Egypt and Nubia. 



solitary groves of date-trees exist, you may wander among their 

 tall trunks for hours and, except near the villages, not meet with 

 a bird of any description. It is evidently the want of forest, 

 bush, and thicket in Egypt that accounts for the scarcity of true 

 Shrikes, the paucity of Sylviidce, and the total absence of Wood- 

 peckers. The cliffs of nummulitic limestone and siliceous sand- 

 stone at various points on the river, both in Egypt and Nubian 

 afford excellent retreats for Raptores, Rock-Pigeons, Herons, 

 Cormorants, &c. Here, among the ancient rock-cut tombs of 

 man, or the still immeasurably older excavations of primeval Nile, 

 they rear their young undisturbed. Yet the scenery of both 

 these countries is often very tame. Their botanical productions 

 are neither varied nor interesting, and there is no great diversity of 

 birds, which, however, make up for this by their exceeding num- 

 bers. Along the banks of the river the Spur-winged Lapwing, 

 Common Sandpiper, Black-headed Plover, Pied Kingfisher, and 

 Wagtail are plentiful. Spanish Sparrows in thousands, and semi- 

 domesticated Blue Pigeons, scour the country. The pretty Blue- 

 breast, Robin-like, is seen hopping around the margins of fields. 

 Crested Larks, in myriads, chirp, flutter, and rise before you. The 

 Kestrel and Black Kite are hovering about, whilst the mud-built 

 villages and their never-failing date-trees resound with the inces- 

 sant chirp of the House- Sparrow and the soft cooing of the Senegal 

 Dove. Proceeding desert-ways, we bend our steps across rich 

 fields teeming with splendid crops of dhurra, until gradually the 

 alluvium becomes less heavy, and at last suddenly terminates at 

 a well-marked and abrupt line of demarcation, which records the 

 limits of the yearns inundation. Then we come on the Russet 

 Wheatear, Pied Chats, and the Trumpeter Bullfinch, on the 

 verge of the desert, which in long-drawn sandy wastes stretches 

 far and wide. On the Arabian side, however, cliffs of tertiary 

 limestone run along the bank, and in broken ridges extend 

 north and south, advancing and retiring from you according 

 to the devious windings of the river. Such is a transverse orni- 

 thological section of the Nile Valley a short way above Cairo. 



In Nubia we have a very different appearance. The river's bed 

 has now become narrowed by the porphyritic rocks of the First 

 Cataract, and by the secondary sandstone, which forms steep 



