10 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



going to those very places. Then no longer would 

 the hooting of owls be heard in the ruins, no 

 swallows nesting in the rock-hewn tombs, and no 

 coot and wildfowl would ever be seen on the 

 small sheets of water or sacred lakes that adjoin the 

 temples. That all these birds are there means a 

 very great added interest to these places to every 

 one, and to some of us bird enthusiasts the living 

 interest is greater than that which we can whip 

 up for those heavy, severe, architectural achieve- 

 ments, or wild chaotic masses of ruined masonry. 



Elsewhere the point of the scarcity of bird life 

 in the hot summer months has been spoken of, 

 but it is also curious to note that there are just 

 about three to five weeks of mid-winter during 

 which there is no migratory wave seemingly going 

 on at all, up or down the Nile valley. No bands, 

 great or small, of birds heading due north or due 

 south are ever to be seen, and the remark is often 

 made on the paucity of bird life, some persons even 

 declaring that it is "a birdless land." That the 

 native birds are very small in number is true, but the 

 total number of birds, and varieties of birds, that 

 come for a time and pass on is very great. Those 

 that live in temperate climes do, however, have the 

 best of the deal, as it must ever be a greater 



