BIRDS. 418 



on the coverlid, and quietly stared him in the face, but would 

 not permit themselves to be touched. 



Birds. — Travellers have had but few opportunities of ex- 

 amining the winged tribes of Arabia ; though that country is 

 bv no means deficient in the number or variety which it 

 produces. In the fertile districts, tame fowls are very plen- 

 tiful, and all sorts of poultry, — hens, ducks, geese, and tur- 

 keys, — are bred in great abundance. The pintado or guinea- 

 fowl is not domestic ; but they inhabit the woods in such 

 numbers, that children kill them with stones, and sell them 

 in the towns. The pheasant, and several varieties of the 

 pigeon species, abound in the forests of Yemen. In the 

 plains are to be seen the gray partridge, the common lark, 

 and a sort of white crane with the under part of the belly of a 

 beautiful red. About Mount Sinai, Henniker found many 

 coveys of partridges ; some the red-legged of the Grecian 

 Isles ; others brown, and diflfering but httle from the Eng- 

 bsh ; and a third sort speckled like the quail. Over all that 

 peninsula, and in every part of Syria, the katta (a kind of par- 

 tridge) is met with in immense numbers, especially in May 

 and June. They fly in such large flocks, that the Arab boys 

 often knock down two or three at a time, merely by throwing 

 a stick among them. Burckhardt thinks it not improbable 

 that this bird is the seluca, or quail of the Children of Israel.* 

 The Bedouins mentioned to him a large eagle, which carried 

 off their lambs, and whose outspread wings measured six 

 feet. The one called rakham is very common in these 

 mountains ; and the fields are infested by vast numbers of 

 crows, which are sometimes eaten, although forbidden both 

 by the Mohammedan and the Levitical law. Of birds of 

 prey, the Arabs have falcons, sparrow-hawks, bustards, and 

 vultures. The latter are of great service to the natives by 

 clearing the earth of all carcasses, which corrupt very rap- 

 idly, and are extremely noisome in warm climates. They 

 also destroy the fieldraice, which multiply so prodigiously in 

 some districts, that were it not for this assistance the pea- 

 sant would find it absolutely in vain to cultivate his fields. 

 It was gratitude for these importaiit offices that induced the 

 ancient Egyptians to pay them divine honours ; and even at 



* It has been particularly described in Russell's Hist, of 

 Aleppo, vol. ii. p. 94. 



Mm2 



