WADEES AND FALCONS. 13 



occasionally flocks of Stilts and Ruffs, and more rarely 

 Godwits and solitary specimens of the Marsh Sandpiper, are 

 also to be found. These and the Spur-winged Plover, which 

 one never fails to see during the day, form the chief bulk of 

 the birds which may be met with at all seasons on one's way 

 to the Pyramids. A few Snipe are generally observed ; but 

 they are far more common in the Delta, near the coast, where 

 a good shot may kill forty or fifty couple in a day in the 

 marshes between Alexandria and Lake Menzaleh. 



The plains near the Pyramids afford very good Quail- 

 shooting in March and April ; but February is too early for 

 them, as they have not then arrived in any numbers. 



The birds of prey are extremely numerous, the Egyptian 

 Kite {Milvus parasiticus) being by far the most abundant in 

 the town of Cairo itself and throughout Egypt and Nubia. 

 Of the large Hawks, the Peregrine, Lanner, Saker, and 

 Barbary Falcons may all be met with in the neighbom-hood 

 of Sakkarah, the Lanner being the most plentiful ; this bird 

 breeds every year on the Pyramids. The Barbary Falcon is 

 the scarcest of the four species, and the Saker the next in 

 rarity. Of the smaller Falcons, the Kestrel is extremely 

 common everywhere ; the Lesser Kestrel is only a spring 

 visitant, when it becomes plentiful about Alexandria ; the 

 Merlin is very common in the spring, frequenting the Sont- 

 woods, but it does not remain to breed ; the Sparrowhawk 

 abounds wherever trees afford it shelter. I once shot a 

 Goshawk near Benisouef, the only specimen that I know to 

 have been killed in the country. The Long-legged Buzzard 

 {Buteo ferox) is so plentiful in some seasons, that one liurdly 

 passes a day without meeting with it. This handsome bird 

 frequents the open fieklsj where it rests upon some bank or 



