516 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



51. ERYTHROSPIZA GITHAGINEA. Desert-Bullfinch. 



Rather common in all the desert districts of Upper Egypt 

 and in places which are either stony or hut sparsely covered 

 \vith hushes. Often in flocks of four or five individuals. 

 Observed even in the cultivated country, but only among 

 ruins and old walls. 



52. AMYDRUS TRISTRAMI. Tristram's Grakle. 



This remarkable dusky black-blue bird, with rusty-brown 

 wings, was only once seen and observed in a ravine near the 

 monastery of Mar-Saba. It nests in the cliffs in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the monastery, and all day long one sees it in 

 great numbers either sitting on the roofs, towers, and walls 

 of the old buildings or flying round them. The Greek monks 

 have so tamed these Grakles that every day, at the same hour, 

 they come to the call of a brother of the order who feeds 

 them with bread. We had great difficulty in obtaining a 

 specimen, for the monks permit no one to shoot them. I sent 

 the bird to Herr v. Homeyer for identification. 



53. STURNUS VTJLGARIS. Common Starling. 



Only in the first days of our journey and again at the end 

 of February did we meet with the common Starling in Lower 

 Egypt. At the lake of Birket-el-Karun great flocks of them 

 pass the night in the bushes along the shore. 



54. CORVUS CORAX. Raven. 



Throughout Egypt in all suitable places in the towns. 

 Among the desert-mountains, in the desert itself among the 

 old ruins, at the large lakes, and on the sandbanks of the 

 Nile our Raven was frequently observed. In the interior of 

 the temple of Edfu a pair were nesting in the covered and 

 almost perfectly dark hall of the building. On the Red Sea 

 and in the Arabian desert Ravens were also observed. They 



