Dr. A. L. Adams on the Birds of Egypt and Nubia. 21 



B. cinereocapilla. The yellow of the lower parts varies in extent 

 and intensity in males, being often faint towards the throat, 

 which in some is pure white. The mottling on the breast is 

 often present in the adult. The female seems never to lose the 

 white streak over the eye, and, except that the crown is darker 

 than the back during the breeding-season, I have not been 

 enabled to meet with any decided distinctions to match the 

 grey- and black-headed varieties. In the South of Europe, 

 North Africa, and Egypt it would appear that the B. melano- 

 cephala is the rarest variety; but the blackness of the head of this 

 form is not, seemingly, so intense as that of the Indian bird 

 {B. viridis) *. 



MOTACILLA ALBA. 



I saw many on their way southwards in the end of October, 

 when sailing between Malta and Egypt. It is the most com- 

 mon and extensively distributed of the birds of Egypt and Nubia, 

 proceeding far south of the Second Cataract. Another bird, 

 generally mistaken for the Swallow, and conjectured by Cham- 

 pollion to represent a Sparrow, is figured in the hieroglyphic 

 legends as the type of 'an impure or wicked person.' I believe 

 it to be the Wagtail ; and it is worthy of remark that this bird 

 is still called, in Egypt, 'Aboo Eussad' (the father of corrup- 

 tionf )." I must say, I cannot understand what induced the 

 " wise men of the East " to rank this delightful denizen of the 

 country among their birds of bad omen. 



MOTACILLA LUGUBRIS, Pall. 



Is often seen among the rapids of the cataracts, and rarely 

 elsewhere on the Nile. The male measures 6^ inches in length. 

 The call is louder and sharper than that of M. alba, and resembles 

 the chirp of the Canary. It is familiar, and often came on board 

 our boat whilst lying in one of the creeks among the rapids of 

 the First Cataract. There is considerable similarity, both in 

 habits and appearance, between M. lugubris and the Indian 

 Henicuri, Like the latter, it delights to sport around the foaming 

 cataract, fluttering from one torrent-worn boulder to another, 



* Blytb, Cat. As. Soc. Mus. p. 325. 

 t Wilkinson, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 214. 



