490 Mr. M. J. Nicoll — Contributions 



These notes are taken from Mr. Buturlin's ' Limicolse of 

 the Russian Empire' (ii. pp. 133, 134), in Russian, and liave 

 been kindly translated for me by Mr. Buturlin, who adds in 

 his letter that, so far as he can recollect, only one of the 

 two clutches of eggs above referred to, namely, that taken 

 in the delta of the Lena, was brought to St. Petersburg. 

 Tringa ruficollis, Mr. Buturlin writes, does not occur west 

 of the Lena, and all the Stints found breeding west of that 

 river, and all the specimens collected by von Middendorff, 

 prove to be referable to Tringa minuta. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE X. 



Egga of 



Figs. 1, 2. Otocorys elwesi, p. 486. 

 „ 3. Rhopophilus albisuperciliaris, p. 486. 



„ 4, 6. Podoces pleskii, p. 487. 

 „ 6. JEgialitis placida, p. 488. 



„ 7, 8, 9. Tringa ni/icollis, p. 489. 



XXI. — Contributions to the Ornithology of Egypt. 

 By Michael J. Nicoll, M.B.O.U. 



No. I. — Lake Menzaleh. 

 The following paper is based chiefly on a collection of birds 

 made during a short stay in the vicinity of Lake Menzaleh, 

 at the beginning of January 1908. 



I left Cairo on January 4th, accompanied by Capt. J. W. H. 

 Seppings, of the Army Pay Department. By kind permission 

 of the Director of the Coastguard Administration we used 

 the " Rest-House " at Gheit-el-Nassara, which is situated on 

 the edge of Lake Menzaleh about two miles from Damietta. 



At this place the cultivation extends almost to the edge 

 of the lake, only a narrow border of marshland intervening. 

 Near the Rest-House, however, there is a strip of sandy 

 ground, and most of our collecting was done on the edge 

 of the cultivated land, for it was there that birds were 

 most numerous. At the time of our visit, however, there 

 were no noticeable changes in the numbers, as the 



