THE OOL.OOI8T 



111 



and the saintly character given to all 

 (loves, makes it a favorite even with 

 the native people, who give it their 

 protection. 



The Seven grouse and partridges of 

 Egypt are mostly desert birds, and' I 

 saw little of them. But I must not 

 omit the Quail (Coturnix communis), 

 one of the most abundant of birds. 

 So plentiful are they that they were 

 cooked by. hundreds on the Nile steam- 

 ers, and in the hotels. These are 

 mostly caught in nets, and during 

 migration the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean for 150 miles along the Delta, 

 are a complete line of nets for their 

 capture, and they may still be as 

 plenty as in the time of Moses. It is 

 said that in Coronation year, 5,000,000 

 were ordered, and shipped from Egypt 

 to the English market. They are only 

 half the size of Bob White, but are 

 plump, fat and of fine flavor, and are 

 in great demand tor the table in a land 

 where meat is scarce, and high. In 

 April these Quail seemed to be pip- 

 ing their pleasing call notes to their 

 mates, from every grain field, in 

 Palestine, and ,a short walk in the di- 

 rection of the sound would start the 

 birds on the wing, for a low, short 

 flight. Xo wonder it is numerous for 

 il breeds over such a vast extent of 

 country. For a species so excessively 

 abundant, no other keeps so well hid- 

 den, and is so little seen by travel- 

 ers. I well remember the time, some 

 thirty cr more years ago, when these 

 Quails were brought to this country, 

 and liberated in various sections by 

 thousands, with the expectation of 

 adding this, most prolific of all, to our 

 list of game birds. Many hundreds 

 were turned out near my home, and 

 were later found with nests and seem- 

 ed to be doing nicely, but their migra- 

 tory habits took them away in autumn 

 — no one knows where — and not one 

 ever returned, and it is still an un 



solved mystery what became of them. 



The family of waders is pretty well 

 represented all through the Nile coun- 

 try, but being largely new species to 

 me, and not having a good work on 

 Egyptian birds with me at the time, 

 were difficult to determine. I could, 

 however, identify the Lapwing (Vanel- 

 lus cristalus), and Ruff (Machetes 

 l)ugnax) which were common, and al- 

 so the Spur-winged Plover (Hoplop- 

 terus spinosus), Kentish Plover (Aegi- 

 alitis contianus). Little Ringed Plover 

 (A. minor), .Jack Snipe (Gallinago 

 galliruna). Little Stint (Tringa minu- 

 ta), Greenshaw (Totanus canesecens). 

 Green Sandpiper (T. ochropus). Com- 

 mon Sandpiper (Actitis hypolencos) 

 and others. The large fine Common 

 Crane (Grus communis), Spoonbill 

 (Platajl ea leucorodia) and Night 

 Heron (Nyctocorax griseus), were of- 

 ten seen all up and down the great 

 river. The Common Heron (Ardes 

 cinerea (much like our Great Blue 

 Heron), was numerous, while the 

 Common Coot (Fulica atra). was very 

 abundant in all shallow, still water, 

 even in the parks and the Sacred Lake 

 of Karnak. 



The prettiest of all the waders was 

 the Buff-backed Heron (ardeoia rut, 

 sata). They are snowy white, with 

 a slight shading of reddish-buff on the 

 back, though except in the breeding 

 season it is practically white all over, 

 and always looks so at a distance. 

 This bird is often erroneously called 

 Egret, by natives and others, and as 

 tourists all want to see the Sacred 

 ibis of the Nile, (Ibis sethiopica) and 

 enciuire for it, the Arab dragomen 

 have learned to jilease, and cheat 

 them at the same time, by assuring 

 them that this is the bird they so much 

 desire to see. By the way the Sacred 

 Ibis is three times as large, black and 

 white in color, and is no longer a bird 

 of Egypt, and is only found, rarely, a 



