22 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



the white and black phimage. But they somehow 

 always look untidy birds. This perhaps holds good 

 of all vultures when sitting in repose ; their wings 

 seem to be too loose jointed, and they hang their 

 feathers so as to give the impression that they 

 are not firmly fixed in and might fall out, but 

 the moment they spring into the air their wings 

 gain at once a sort of rigidity, and all the sloppy, 

 untidy effect disappears. This bird is certainly more 

 often seen than the preceding, since it is not afraid 

 of the haunts of man ; but one is not at all certain 

 that it is really commoner. In all the representa- 

 tions of this as of other birds, the old Egyptian 

 artists have a curious habit of depicting their birds 

 with their legs stretched out too far in front, and 

 looking as if the bird were in danger of falling over 

 backwards. 



Once as we were drifting by a bit of sand-bank, 

 the river being very low, I remember well an awful- 

 looking, unrecognisable object, dirty, dishevelled, 

 and, as children say, "very bluggy," coming 

 towards us over the skyline. It more resembled 

 some poor drunk man who had been fighting and 

 had got fearfully knocked about, and what bird it 

 was, if bird at all, we knew not. Well, this dilapi- 

 dated-looking thing walked slowly down the slope 



