EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



Pliny declares that it was by watching the flight 

 of birds in general, and of the Kite in particular, 

 that men first conceived the idea of steering then- 

 boats and ships with a tail or rudder, for, says he, 

 " these birds by the turning and steering by their 

 tails showed in the air what was needful to be done 

 in the deep." Nowhere can the aerial movements 

 of birds be better studied than on the Nile, and as 

 one's eye becomes trained it is just by the varying 

 individual methods of flight that one is often able 

 to identify the particular species of birds. This is 

 to the most casual observer self-evident in those 

 birds that fly close, near, or over one's head ; but it 

 is astonishing how, as the eye gets trained, even a 

 faint speck high up in mid-air can be absolutely 

 identified by some peculiarity of shape and move- 

 ment. On Plate 2 are some half-dozen different 

 birds depicted as in flight, to assist the reader to 

 identify the birds he will frequently see. 



No. 1 is the ordinary Kite of Egypt. Seen as 

 soon as one lands at Alexandria or Port Said : 



