110 Captain Clark Kennedy on the Avifauna 



close to the Tern, and in another second S. caspia found his 

 last resting-])laee in the capacious belly of a large shark ! 



Our camels were all ready for us on the 21st, when we got 

 to Suez ; but a strong Khamseer wind blew all day, which 

 prevented our starting for the " wells of Moses " until the 

 following day. I noticed a small number of Phalacrocorax 

 curbo in Suez harbour^ but saw few birds excepting the com- 

 moner Gulls^ Terns, and Hawks. At half-past ten the next 

 morning we found ourselves in Asia, having quitted Africa 

 by crossing the Red Sea near the spot where the children of 

 Israel went over. Mounting our camels^ we set out on the 

 first stage of our desert journey ; and being now truly in the 

 peninsula of Sinai, my notes on the birds observed by us 

 commence. 



Our route^ after spending a month in the desert, and stay- 

 ing some days at Mount Sinai, was via Nukhl, to Jerusalem ; 

 then, having visited the Dead Sea and valley of the Jordan, 

 we rode throughout the whole length of the Holy Land to 

 Damascus, thence to Beyrout, which we left on the 10th 

 of May for Constantinople. Thus the birds in the following 

 list were met with between March 22nd and May 10th, 1870. 



1. VuLTUR MONACHUs (Liuu.). Black Vulture. 



I met with this species very sparingly in the desert, and 

 found it most abundant close to the convent of Sinai. I also 

 saw a few of them in Southern Palestine ; but I should call 

 them rare in that country. 



2. Gyps fulvus (Gm.). Grifibn Vulture. 



When resting upon the summit of Jebel Musa, where God 

 is said to have given the tables of the law to Moses, we noticed 

 one pair of the Griffon soaring far above iu the blue sky, but 

 could distinguish them well with an opera-glass. This was 

 on March 30th, and was the only time 1 met with this species, 

 never seeing it in Palestine. 



3. Neophron percnopterus (L.). Egyptian Vulture. 

 One of the commonest of birds in the Sinaitic desert, and 



almost as numerous in some places here as in Egypt itself. 

 Around the convent of Sinai there were a great many of them ; 



