108 Captain Clark Kennedy on the Avifauna 



ranean, at Alexandria. Having " done " all the lions of that 

 city^ and enjoyed some excellent Snipe-shooting in its vicinity, 

 we went on to Cairo, and remaining there for a eouple of 

 weeks, ascended the Nile into Nubia, and we spent nearly two 

 months in collecting specimens of the birds we met with by 

 the banks of that venerable river. So much, however, has 

 been >vritten in 'The Ibis^ upon Egyptian ornithology al- 

 ready, and the subject has been so well treated by my friend 

 Captain G. E, Shelley in his lately published work on the 

 birds of that country, that I do not intend to refer to this 

 portion of my travels. But I will give a brief outline of 

 our proceedings after the 17th March, 1870. On that day 

 we left Cairo for Ismailia, intending to see the Suez Canal, 

 just then opened, while our dragoman and servants and our 

 camels, with the impedimenta for our trip through the Sinaitic 

 Desert, Avent on ahead to Suez, where the Bedouin Arabs of 

 the Tor tribe were to furnish our escort and be all ready to 

 start on our arrival at that place. It was our intention to 

 leave Cairo upon the 16th of March; but on arriving at 

 the railway station, at 9.30 a.m., we were disappointed to find 

 that there was no chance of getting to Ismailia that day, as, 

 owing to the strong south winds of the previous day, the line 

 of rails for some six miles to the westward of that place had 

 been completely buried by drifting sand, which in some spots 

 was many feet in depth. Thus situated we returned to our 

 hotel, and took a long donkey-ride into the desert to the east of 

 Cairo, and beyond the famed petrified forest, where I found 

 the largest flock I ever saw of the prettily plumaged Ery- 

 throspiza yithufjinea, and obtained a specimen of the Bifas- 

 ciated Lark {(Jert/ti/aitda desertorum) , which cannot be said 

 to be often met with. In a deserted burial-ground, near the 

 tombs of the Cailliphs, wc found, on our return, several pairs 

 of the Rock-Thrush [Montico/a saxatilis) . In another Arab 

 cemetery, on the outskirts of the city, I saw Monticola cyanus 

 in some numbers. I entii'ely agree with Captain Shelley 

 (' Birds of Egypt,' p. 71) that this is a far commoner species 

 than M. saxatilis : but I have never seen both species so close 

 together ; for the two burial-grounds were but a few hundred 



