318 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



lasts about three montlis, during vvliicli period the 

 Egyptians catch them in great quantities, by rub- 

 bing bird-Hme on tlic trees and bushes upon which 

 they settle. They sell them either alive or pluck- 

 ed. In order to strip them of their feathers, they 

 bury them for a moment in the sand, the heat of 

 which, by melting their fat, renders it an easy mat- 

 ter to pull out the feathers, and prepares them to 

 become a very delicate repast. 



I remarked more particularly at Rossetta and at 

 Alexandria, some other species of birds of passage 

 during the month of September, the period when 

 the absence of these new guests of a country more 

 mild, transforms our naked forests into gloomy so- 

 litudes. The bird which fills our groves with his 

 shrill whistling, as it embellishes them with his 

 brilliant plumage, iheloriot * perches himself, from 

 preference, on t!ie mulberry-treesof the gardens in 

 the environs of inhal^ited places ; but he does not 

 utter his sonorous voice; he is silent in Egypt; 

 he has not there to sing his loves. He serves for 

 food, and his passage is little more than fifteen 

 days. They likewise cat guepiers-^ (wasp-eaters), 

 which the Provencals name sirenes, and the Greeks 



* Loiiot, Buffon, Hist. Nat. des OIs. ct pi. enlum. No. 26. 

 — Orklus ^alhula, Lin. 



f Gucpier, Buffon, Hist. Nat. des Ois. et pi. enlum. No. 

 938. — Mevops tijiiastcr, Liu, 



meJ'isb 



