1900.] 167 



March 24th, another long and tedious railway journey brought us 

 northwards again to Medinet-el-Fayum, a lively bustling town inter- 

 sected by a canal, and the centre of a rich agricultural district. Here 

 we found tolerable quarters for some days in a roughish hotel kept by a 

 Greek. We made excursions in various directions by train or donkey, 

 and found several good " localities "- especially Siala where there is 

 a railway station on the edge of the desert, and the wild surroundings 

 of the Hawara Pyramid. Here Zygopliyllum coceineum and other 

 desert plants grew pretty freely, and attracted many rare and curious 

 Hymenoptera. Altogether the district would, I doubt not, have well 

 repaid a longer stay than we could make in it. In the hotel at 

 Medinet a live insect was brought to me by one of the inhabitants. 

 It was a Sirex gigas, Lin. ( ? ), a curious find in such a place, but no 

 doubt imported in timber. CepJius tahidus, P., is common in the Fayum, 

 but I met with no other Sawflies there or elsewhere in Egypt. 



March 29th. We returned to Cairo, and thence took train for the 

 Baths of Helouan, where we remained about a week, and I augmented 

 my collection considerably. 



March 3Lst. We had a sort of pic-nic, organized by Dr. Dinkier 

 of Cairo, on an island in the Nile, which is rented by a sporting club 

 to which he belongs. This island is known to the Doctor's friends as 

 Adelen-Insel— having been so named in playful compliment to Mme. 

 A. Dinkier, his wife, and this name is immortalized in some recent 

 German works on Egyptian Hymenoptera. It will not, however, be 

 found in maps or official directories. Here, on his previous visit, Dr. 

 Schmiedeknecht discovered the beautiful little genus and species, 

 Eremiasphecium Schmiedekneclitii, Kohl : and, although the day was 

 exceedingly cloudy and unpropitious, I had the great good luck to 

 secure one ^J and one ? of the precious insect. 



We feasted Homerically with our kind entertainers on an entire 

 roast lamb, immolated and cooked in our honour. Eeturning across 

 the river in the evening we were delighted with the spectacle of an 

 enormous flight of pelicans, who descended on the river in a dense 

 mass, looking actually like a huge island, and then rose majestically 

 and moved off in a compact phalanx towards the north. 



April 1st. In clover fields by the Nile I found many Andrenidae 

 and quite a number of Nectanehus. This latter insect skims rather 

 slowly over and among the flower-heads. It is very conspicuous in its 

 appearance, and is easily captured. 



April 2nd. We visited the Great Pyramid. In an old brick or 

 rather mud wall close to the Sphinx, Dr. Schmiedeknecht had found 



