534 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
shows how far into the interior this bird goes for its 
winter-quarters. When I left Hgypt, at the end of March, 
the Bee-eaters had not yet appeared; but I heard from a 
friend that three days after my departure they had arrived 
in swarms, and that the greatest number had been seen in the 
Shabra gardens not far from the town. <A few days later, in 
the first week of April, I had repeated opportunities of ob- 
serving these birds in the valley of the Jordan, where paired 
couples were hovering about the high crumbling earthy 
banks of the streams, while the many nest-holes indicated 
that colonies of them bred there every year. 
The Roller (Coracias garrula) was not observed in Africa ; 
but in the valley of the Jordan I saw a good many, almost 
all, paired couples. They generally frequented the same 
breeding-places as the Bee-eaters, and lived in company with 
them. 
I was lying in wait for jackals in the rocky valley of Mar- 
Saba, below the monastery, when, soon after sunset, I noticed 
some birds flitting like butterflies along the cliffs, and at times 
climbing up the bare rocks and disappearing one after another 
into the clefts and crannies to sleep. Having often observed 
the Wall-creeper (Tichodroma muraria) in the Alps, and 
knowing its appearance perfectly, as well as its characteristic 
habit of coming every evening to a particular cliff, where, 
after a few flying and running manceuvres, it seeks its 
rest, | was sure that these birds were Wall-Creepers; but, 
though the cliff was not far from my post, the increasing 
darkness prevented by seeing the colours of their plumage. 
