416 Canon H. B. Tristram's Ornithological 



Here we could see them as they quietly sailed home at sunset. 

 I secured five specimens, which dropped at my feet in quiet 

 succession. The noise disturbed the young ones above, and 

 seeing a head and neck projected over the cliff above, I was 

 fortunate enough to hit it ; but it fell back out of sight, and 

 I gave up my prey as lost. In a minute or two, however, it 

 must have rolled over in the death struggle, for it fell dead 

 at my feet. The bird was fully fledged, and quite able to fly, 

 having scarcely any trace of the nesting-plumage ; but instead 

 of the large bony protuberance at the back of the skull and 

 the bare red skin, the base of the skull presented no peculiar 

 development, and the whole head was covered to the base of 

 the bill with thick short feathers, mottled black and white. I 

 afterwards saw some younger nestlings looking out over the 

 ledge, and others pacing backwards and forwards, as though 

 preparing to try their pinions. The nests of the birds seemed 

 to be a handful of twigs and straws placed close to the back 

 of the rock, and the birds sit almost as close as sea-fowl on 

 a ledge at Flambro' Head. Our discharges had had no effect 

 in scaring away the rapid arrivals ; and as I already had more 

 on hand than I could accomplish, after waiting till it was 

 nearly dark, we packed up our six prizes in a large Arab 

 cloak, which my companion threw over his shoulder, so as to 

 conceal the contents, and took our departure, I following my 

 guide at a cautious distance, so as to avoid exciting the sus- 

 picion that my gun had any connexion with his burden. The 

 heat was so intense, the thermometer 96° in the shade, that 

 I had to work throughout the greater part of the night in 

 the yard of the house in order to preserve the specimens ; 

 and I have no desire ever again to skin six Ibises after a 

 hard day's work, by lamplight, in a temperature of near 100°. 

 The people assured me that these birds only come for the 

 breeding-season, and are never seen during the rest of the 

 year, not even a straggler remaining ; and this is the only 

 breeding-place I could hear of during my travels, nor did I 

 ever see a Bald Ibis on the Euphrates or away from it, except 

 in the environs of Birejik. Considering that it breeds only 

 on the Mesopotamian side of the river^ I am at a loss to under- 



