AND LOWER EGYPT. 3I9 



meliso orgh'i, (bee's enemy). But this is not a highly 

 esteemed species of food. There are hkewise fly- 

 catchers *, which are caught with a net or with 

 bird-lime. Another bird, less delicate still than 

 those of which I have been just speaking, and 

 which is not less the victim of the voracity of man 

 on its arrival on the coasts of Egypt, is the red 

 speckled magpie -j-, called by the Arabs dagnonsse^ 

 and by the Provencals darnagua. They are caught 

 in nets in pretty large numbers. They are sold 

 alive, as well as all those birds which the law of 

 Mahomet forbids to be stranirled, and which must 

 not be used for tbod till after they have been bled. 

 But as these latter are very vicious, and as they 

 cruelly nip the fmgers, the bird-catchers take care 

 to tie together the two ends of their beak with one 

 of their feathers. You see there likewise rol- 

 liers \^ which the Provencals call hlurelSj wood- 

 peckers '^j &c. &c. 



But there is no passage of birds more consider- 

 able, and at the same time more unaccountable, 



* Gobe moil die, premiere espece, Buffon, Hist. Nat. des OIs. 

 et pi. enlum. No. 565, fig. i. — Muscicapa grisola. Lin. 



f Pie grieche roiisse, Buifon, Hisr. Nat. des Ois. enlum. 

 Nos. 9 et 3 I. — Lanius collurio. Lin. 



% Rollier d'Europe, BulTon, Hist. Nat. des Ois. — Coraciat 

 garrula, Lin. 



§ Pic-vert, Buffon, Hist. Nat. des Oi":. er pi. enlum. Nos. 

 371 et 879. — f'icus viriJis. Lin, 



than 



