12 SPOKT. 



another day has to be devoted to the Pyramids ; but as it is 

 my present object to treat of the natural history and shooting 

 that Egypt affords, I shall pass over the sight-seeing, as the 

 fullest information may be obtained about them in ' Murray's 

 Handbook ' and in the countless other works which have 

 been written upon the subject. 



Leaving Cairo, let lis start for the Pyramids, taking our 

 guns with us. For some distance after crossing the Nile we 

 ride among the native houses — dii-ty mud huts, and occasional 

 palaces belonging to the Khedive or his family ; for almost 

 every respectable house on this bank belongs to the Govern- 

 ment. We soon become well acquainted with the small white 

 Herons {Ardeola russata), which are extremely abundant, and 

 form a prominent object in every scene about Cairo and in 

 the Delta, their clean white plumage giving them a graceful 

 appearance on the ground ; but they rise with difficulty, and 

 are awkward in their flight. On each side of the embank- 

 ment which forms the road to the Pyramids there are pools 

 of water, the remains of the inundation which covers the 

 country in the autumn. In these pools we find Teal very 

 abundant, while upon the large pieces of water may be seen 

 numbers of the common Wild Duck, Shoveller, Pintail, and 

 Pochard, occasionally also large flocks of White-fronted and 

 Egyptian geese. Here and there the common Heron is seen 

 standing motionless in the mud or slowly flapping across the 

 open country away from danger ; for these cunning birds are 

 as shy in Egypt as in Europe, and often give timely warning 

 of danger to the other frequenters of the mudbanks. Almost 

 every ditch or pool holds some species of wader, the com- 

 monest of which are the Grecnshanks, Common Sandpiper, 

 Green Sandpiper, Stint, Kentish Plover, Lesser Eing-Plovcr ; 



