Notes of a Journey through Syria ^c. 403 



past, made a goodly bag within a walk of Boulac, were no 

 longer to be seen. I ascended the river by one of the new 

 steamers, and from its deck, for a whole day, I saw scarce 

 any thing better worth notice than a Hooded Crow or a Buff- 

 backed Heron. 



One piece of Egyptian antique art I must mention here, 

 for it conveys a very interesting bit of ornithological history, 

 which I have not seen noticed, though doubtless it is familiar 

 to many readers of ' The Ibis.' In the museum at Boulac 

 is a very fine fresco from a tomb of the Hyksos period, pro- 

 nounced both by Loftus and by the late Marietta Bey to be 

 the oldest existing painting in the world. This fresco repre- 

 sents six wild Geese in a line, life-size. The first, second, 

 third, and sixth figures are those of a White-fronted Goose in 

 different attitudes, most accurately painted ; but the fourth 

 and fifth figures are of the Red-breasted Goose of Siberia. 

 How comes it here ? We cannot help recalling how a like 

 distinguished honour has been accorded to the Bed-breasted 

 Goose, depicted on the same canvas with the White Dodo of 

 Bourbon in the painting now at Carisbrook Castle, repro- 

 duced by Prof. Newton in the Trans. Zool. Soc. (vol. vi. 

 p. 373). But how does it happen that this bird is one of 

 the earliest known subjects of Egyptian art, painted there 

 more than 4000 years ago ? Was it then a very rare strag- 

 gler, which some fortunate fowler had caught, and which 

 attracted notice by its rarity, or was it a bird then well 

 known, but which has since become extinct in its whilom 

 winter quarters ? In the latter case, as it could never have 

 been more than a winter visitor, this fresco may indicate a 

 former westward extension of the summer range of this now 

 exclusively Eastern Siberian bird. 



From Cairo to Ismailia, and from Ismailia by the canal to 

 Port Said, we saw nothing. But around the latter place, 

 though itself the abomination of desolation, birds are still 

 abundant, though my only souvenir is an Avocet ; and the 

 Ducks on the Damietta lakes seemed as numerous as ever, 

 although they were very needlessly most anxious to avoid too 

 close a recognition. 



