146 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



the reds of their legs and the golden yellow of 

 the sand, and if on your nearer approach they all 

 simultaneously rise together into mid-air you will 

 be hardly likely to forget the scene for a whole 

 lifetime. 



The Black Stork is not so interesting as the 

 above, but it is a remarkably handsome bird in 

 itself. All its peculiarities are just the opposite 

 of the White Stork. It is not gregarious, but 

 generally rather a solitary bird ; it does not love 

 its own species, and it certainly does not court the 

 proximity of man. On the scale that our drawing 

 has had to be reduced to, to suit these pages, it 

 comes very small, but not too small to show the 

 general disposition of the colours of its plumage. 

 We came very early in the morning on this group 

 standing at the end of a long sand-bar, just ten 

 miles south of Sohag, and they never got up as 

 the boat sailed comparatively close by them. The 

 group was a very mixed one, as in addition to the 

 four Black Storks there were two Spoonbills and a 

 Heron ; and I find another note that once I saw 

 three Black Storks, one White Stork, and several 

 Herons all in a bunch together, this also in the grey 

 of an early March morning. These two cases of a 



