Letters, Announcements, &^c. 379 



I was struck by the vast number of Gulls which closely fol- 

 lowed our ship, and scrambled for pieces of bread which I 

 amused myself by throwing to them. I was also struck by 

 the fact that the majority of these Gulls were Larus canus, 

 a species I had never previously met with in Egypt. Mixed 

 with these were a smaller number of Larus leucophaus and 

 Larus ridibundus. I also saw a few pairs of Larus ichthy- 

 aetus, but these majestic birds did not condescend to follow 

 our ship or take any notice of the bread thrown to their 

 smaller relatives. 



At Suez, where I stayed two days, I noticed the same 

 absence of Passerine birds as on former visits ; the ubiqui- 

 tous Sparrow and the obtrusive Grey Crow {Corvus comix), 

 which swarm in all other parts of Egypt, were nowhere 

 to be seen ; the only Passerine birds were Motacilla alba 

 and Corvus umbrinus, which last species is, I think, more 

 abundant at Suez than anywhere else in Egypt. Thence 

 I went to Cairo, and stayed there from February 12th 

 to March 1st, when I went up the Nile to Thebes. At Cairo 

 1 used frequently to spend the half hour before and the half 

 hour after sunset in the beautiful Esbekyeh garden. In the 

 centre of this is a lake, over which, up to sunset, a quantity 

 of Swallows, Hirundo savignii, were always flying about, 

 catching insects. Evening after evening I used to see a large 

 Sparrow-hawk, Accipiter nisus, which, from its size, I judged 

 to be a female, make its appearance just before sunset, while 

 the Swallows were still flying about. Of these it never took 

 any notice, having perhaps found out by experience that they 

 were more trouble to catch than they were worth ; but it 

 would perch on the top of some tree commanding the lake 

 and wait till the sun had set and the Swallows taken them- 

 selves off, and in their place a swarm of small Bats came on 

 the scene, flitting about over the lake. Now was the time 

 for the Hawk's supper, and it used to dash in among the 

 Bats, catch one in an instant, take it off to a tree, and there 

 eat it ; and it generally found time to catch a second one 

 before it got too dark for further operations. I once went 

 under the tree where the Hawk was eating its Bat, and picked 



