EGYPTIAN BIRDS 11 



possession to have the birds nesting around one 

 than merely passing by in migrating flights, be those 

 flights as amazing as they may. Birds, from what- 

 ever reason is not certainly known, do not love the 

 excessively hot or cold areas as breeding-places, but 

 do seem to love the more moderate temperate 

 climes. In Great Britain the number of birds that 

 will and do breed within a very small tract of 

 ground is amazing, and Mr. Kearton tells of a 

 small copse in Hertfordshire in which were the 

 nests, with eggs or young, of nine different species 

 of birds, all within fifty yards of one another ; and 

 in another case, within a space of ten yards, were 

 a tit's, a flycatcher's, and a wood wren's nest. In 

 Egypt, the number of birds breeding is not large, 

 and excepting some of the great lakes with their 

 margins of shallow water and swampy reeds, there 

 are few places that offer any attractions for birds to 

 nest in any numbers. In the groves of palms you 

 do get many doves building in close proximity 

 with kites and crows, and along certain stretches 

 of the Nile banks large colonies of sand-martins 

 build, but with these exceptions the fact remains 

 that this country has not a large list of birds 

 breeding in any numbers. In the great lakes of 

 Lower Egypt and the Fayoum there are, however, 



