24



Lady Wm. Cecil,



across some secluded valley or wind-swept plain. Even minute

Irises are found in the Nile valley some distance beyond the

limit of irrigation.


But this transformation is only passing; soon the sun

scorches the delicate growths, and withered stalks alone show

where flowers have been.


Among the rocks, he who seeks may find the Brown -

necked Raven ( Corvus umbrinus), the nests of these birds are, as

a rule, built in the clefts of the jagged desert hills, or in holes

high up in some sun-baked precipice. I saw several pairs of

Brown-necked Ravens hovering and flying evidently about their

nests, near the summit of the cliffs between Bir Inglaise and the

Red Sea. These cliffs rise abruptly in an almost perpendicular

wall direct from the desert, and are of a more or less chalky

formation, quite distinct from the granite and sand-stone and

crumbling umber-coloured rocks further west, and the limestone

mountains north, south and east.


The rarer Abyssinian Raven (Corvus affinis') is also a native

of the desert. This variety, too. has a brown neck, and the

nostrils are fringed with stiff upstanding bristles, which gives

the bird a very ferocious look ; its legs are short, and conse¬

quently its appearance is somewhat stumpy. We saw a pair of

these birds on the western side of the Nile, in the Lybian desert,

in February, and another pair at EsSid, perhaps some fifty miles

away in the Eastern desert, a month later.


The Ravens find a plentiful supply of food in the desert,

for they prey upon carrion, and probably also on small living

animals, such as desert mice, jerboas, and young snakes. They

are said also to eat locusts.


The Raven’s gruesome feast is shared by the Vultures.

The variety commonest in the desert is the Griffon Vulture ( Gyps

fulvus ) ; a soft white down covers its head and throat, and a frill

of whitish feathers decorates the back of its neck ; it is rather

smaller than its fellow in the desert, the Sociable Vulture

(Otogyps auiicularis), whose neck is skinny, though a little dark

fluff covers the top of its head. Another vulture that may be

seen here occasionally is the Bearded Vulture ( Gypaetus ossifra-

gus ) : this bird is well-named for it has a beard of feathers at



