368 Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor on Birds of Egypt. 



XXVI. — A few additional Notes on Birds of Egypt. 

 By E. Cavendish Taylor, M.A., F.Z.S.^ 



I LEFT Naples for my fourth visit to Egypt on March 9th, 

 1878, and arrived at Alexandria on the morning of the 14th. 

 Our steamer was accompanied nearly the whole of the voyage 

 by considerable numbers of Larus leucophmus and Larus 

 melanocephalus, the latter already at that date in full breeding- 

 plumage, with black head well developed. These were the 

 only Gulls I saw until we came in sight of Alexandria, when 

 the peculiar Egyptian race of Larus fuscus, with the very dark 

 mantle, appeared in great numbers. On March 17th I went 

 on to Cairo, which was my head quarters until April 16th. 

 On March 21st I visited the Pyramids of Gizeh, where I 

 found, as usual, those regular habitues of the locality, Falco 

 lanarius, Bubo ascalaphus, and Corvus umbrinus. I also saw 

 numbers of a bird I should not have expected to find in such 

 a place — Sylvia rueppelli. On March 27th I went to Halouan, 

 where there is an excellent hotel in the middle of the desert, 

 fifteen miles due south of Cairo. The raison d'etre of 

 Halouan and its hotel is a copious spring of sulphureous 

 water, celebrated for its efficacy in cutaneous and other dis- 

 eases, I did not find Halouan a very good place for collect- 

 ing ; but it is the best head quarters from which to visit 

 Sakara and the Pyramids of Dashoor. I remained three days 

 at Halouan, and then returned to Cairo. On April 6th I went 

 to Port Said, passing a night at Ismailia on the way. I found 

 Port Said a very good place for Terns and Gulls, but I did 

 not get much else. Port Said has the great merit of possess- 

 ing a first-rate hotel. I stayed there three days, and then 

 returned to Cairo, where I remained until April 1 6th, when 

 I went to Damietta, where I made the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Eugene Fillipponi, a resident in that town, of whom I had 

 heard from Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., and from whom I got 

 some rather nice birds. At Damietta I came in for spring 

 visitants, and found Oriolus galbula, Cuculus canorus, and 

 Yunx torquilla far more numerous than I had ever before 

 * See for previous Notes Ibis, 1859, p. 41, and 1867, p. 48. 



