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ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 
our ill-stocked larder, and there I even found fledged birds 
of the year. 
73. GEDICNEMUS CREPITANS. Stone-Curlew. 
The Stone-Curlew occurs throughout Egypt in suitable 
localities, old walls near water being its favourite resorts. I 
found a great many of them in the ruins of an ancient mosque 
at Cairo. ‘There, as well as in most of the Egyptian towns, 
its monotonous ery is nightly heard. It even inhabits the 
upper part of the well-preserved Shabra palace in consider- 
able numbers. It also dwells among large stones and bare 
rocks near water, on the island in the lake of Birket-el-Kartn 
for example. Onthe Nile it frequents the sandy islands that 
are sparingly covered with bushes. In Palestine we saw a 
pair on the barren mountains above the Dead Sea, and a flock 
of more than ten on the steppe near the Jordan. Unless we 
made a special search for this bird we seldom met with it, but 
as soon as it began to get dark we heard its cali almost nightly, 
both in Egypt and Palestine. 
74, CHETTUSIA LEUCURA. White-tailed Plover. 
Some of these beautiful birds were observed on the shores of 
Lake Birket-el-Kartin. 
75. HopLoprervs sPINnosvs. Spur-winged Plover. 
From Alexandria to Assuan in all suitable localities near 
water. On the banks of the Nile especially one sees great 
numbers of these handsome birds every day ; also on fields, 
meadows, and sandbanks, in gardens, by pools and canals, 
it may be observed either singly or in flocks of as many as 
twenty or even more. It is not shy, and one could slaughter 
a hundred in a few days, 
