302 BIRDS OF EGYPT. 



shot several at How. In the Delta and the Fayoom they 

 are extremely abundant, and by no means shy, often flitting 

 gracefully backwards and forwards over the small ponds 

 close to the villages. 



Breeding-plumage. — Top of the head and nape black ; 

 upper surface pearl-grey ; cheeks and throat white ; under- 

 side of the wings and under tail-coverts white ; remainder of 

 the under sm-face leaden grey ; beak and legs coral-red ; 

 irides dark brown. 



Entire length 9"5 inches; culmen 1"2 ; wing, carpus to 

 tip, 9 ; tarsus 0-9. 



Fig. Gould, B. of Eur. pi. 424. 



332. Rhynchops flavirostris, Vicill. Scissor-hilled Tern. 



(Plate XIV.) 



I first saw some of these curious birds flitting over the 

 sandbanks near Edfoo on the 1st of April ; on the 4th a 

 small flock passed our boat near Philae, and we met, I be- 

 lieve, the same party again ten days later among the rapids 

 of the First Cataract. Afterwards we saw these Terns fre- 

 quently in considerable numbers, and killed several near 

 Erment, where I believe they were beginning to breed on 

 the sandbanks. They were not shy, and afforded me plenty 

 of opportunities of watching their graceful evolutions as they 

 played together. 



Mr. S. Stafibrd Allen (Ibis, lb64,p. 243) mentions having 

 seen the Scissor-billed Tern once near Thebes, and speaks 

 of its having been killed at Damiettii, which appears to 



