THE SWALLOWS 61 



seeing the Common Swallow was February 1, 

 1908, at the Mut Lake, Karnak ; but I have no 

 doubt that at some parts up or down the river 

 they can be seen all the winter through. After 

 February, day by day, the great hosts of them, all 

 flying with earnest intent due north, makes one 

 of the most interesting sights to English eyes in 

 all Egypt, as one can well believe that some of 

 those very birds will be the first to greet one on 

 his return home in April or May. I have often 

 seen them hawking about over the waters of some 

 small insect- haunted pool in friendly company 

 with their Oriental cousins, and have always 

 marvelled at their leaving a land with its constant 

 sun and amazing wealth of flies and insects, for 

 our own comparatively inclement clime and poor 

 food-supply. In a room I slept in, at the hut at 

 Deir-el-Bahari, there was a swallow's nest just 

 over my bed, and though it was too early when 

 I was there in January for them to start breeding, 

 on several occasions the Egyptian Swallows came 

 fluttering in through the unglazed windows, just 

 to take a look round and see that all was right 

 for later on. On February 14 I saw two, which 

 were clearly mated birds, on the ground, picking 

 up scraps of twigs and straw, and then rapidly 



