532 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 



only in Africa, where I noticed it sitting on the islands of 

 Lake Menzaleh, while it was common on the banks of the 

 Nile and among the fields of the cultivated districts of Upper 

 Egypt. 



The Pygmy Eagle has already been treated of among the 

 specimens obtained, and I w r ill only add that two of the speci- 

 mens had the very dark, almost black dress, while the third 

 exhibited the true transition stage of plumage coffee-brown 

 varied with striations and whitish spots. Among the many 

 Pygmy Eagles that we saw I also noticed some in the per- 

 fectly white dress of the true pennata, by which that form 

 used to be distinguished from minuta. 



As I was one day sitting waiting for jackals in the ravine 

 below the monastery of Mar-Saba, in Palestine, an eagle flew 

 along the upper edge of the rocks, which, from its size and 

 plumage, I could only take to be Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila 

 bonellii), a bird well known to me. 



On the banks of the Nile I observed the Sea-Eagle (Haliae- 

 tus albicUla) on several occasions, but, singularly enough, 

 always young birds in the dark plumage. There could have 

 been no mistake, for I examined some with the field-glass 

 when they were not more than two hundred paces off. 



I never saw the Cinereous Vulture (Vultnr cinereiis) in 

 Africa ; but in Palestine I observed two in the oak woods of 

 Mount Tabor, and also fancied that I detected some amongst 

 a flock of Griffon Vultures in the mountains bordering the Red 

 Sea. Of this, however, I cannot be sure. 



The great Sociable Vulture (Vultur cwricuJarifi) , which 

 only a few years ago was a regular inhabitant of Upper 

 Egypt, has now almost entirely disappeared. I saw two 

 among some Griffon Vultures ; they were all sitting on a 

 sandbank near the carcass of a buffalo that had been washed 

 up by the Nile. 



My attention was drawn to them by the way in which they 



