110 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



It loves the deserts, and as far as I know never 

 leaves them save to come down, as the Sand-grouse 

 do, to some water-hole. Round the Pyramids, and 

 even within sight of the babel of guides and donkey 

 boys, this child of the desert may be seen, but it 

 always keeps, as it were, in touch with the bound- 

 less open sandy tracts to which it can beat a safe 

 retreat. In one of the large show-cases in the 

 great Central Hall of the British Museum of 

 Natural History, they are shown in a group with 

 other desert birds and beasts, but it is sad to 

 see how the colours of their plumage get — even 

 with all the care of dust-proof cases — dull, faded 

 and dingy, giving little idea of the brilliantly clear, 

 delicately coloured plumage of the living bird, as 

 seen under the clear blue of an Egyptian sky. 



