156 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



and the rest render life in some places intolerable. 

 No one quite knows what flies are till one tries 

 sketching out of doors here. With your palette 

 on one hand and brushes in the other, you are an 

 easy prey to them, and they take every advantage 

 of the fact. They will cluster by the dozen on 

 your face, walk in brigades over the ridge of 

 your nose, sting you on the hand, at the back 

 where your palette hides them from your view, 

 and even if you have a boy with a fly -wisp they 

 will never leave you. I have found them at their 

 worst at the edges of the cultivated land, where 

 trees are often growing picturesquely, tempting 

 the artist to sit in their seductive shade ; with 

 most dire results, as one is almost eaten alive, and 

 one envies the cattle who are being so assiduously 

 attended to by these kindly fly -catchers. 



The Egret is one of the many birds that the 

 dragoman makes the tourist happy by calling " the 

 Ibis," and the number that return to their friends 

 gleefully telling how they saw a flock of Ibises 

 grows every season. In the article on the Ibis it 

 is shown how ludicrously untrustworthy is the 

 dragoman's Natural History information. 



The Buff*-backed Heron may often be seen 

 flying up or down the river in little parties of 



