BIRDS THE OSTRICH. 455 



geese, and turkeys, are bred in great abundance. The 

 pintado or guinea-fowl is not domestic; but they in- 

 habit 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 beauti- 

 ful red. About Mount Sinai, Henniker found many coveys 

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

 others brown, and differing but little from the English ; 

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

 peninsula, and in every part of Syria, the Jcatta (a kind of 

 partridge) 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 amongst 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 Mo- 

 hammedan and the Levitical law. Of birds of prey, the 

 Arabs have falcons, sparrow-hawks, bustards, and vul- 

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

 clearing the earth of all carcasses, which corrupt very 

 rapidly, and are extremely noisome in warm climates. 

 They also destroy the fieldmice, which multiply so pro- 

 digiously in some districts, that were it not for this as- 

 sistance the peasant would find it absolutely in vain to 

 cultivate his fields. It was gratitude for these important 

 offices that induced the ancient Egyptians to pay them 

 divine honours ; and even at present it is held unlawful 

 to kill them in all hot countries which they frequent. 



The Ostrich. Ostriches (called by the Arabs Naamah 

 and Thar es Jemmel, or the camel-bird) are to be met 

 with in the deserts : the Bedouins, however, do not tame 

 them when young, nor take the trouble of hunting them. 

 Burckhardt saw two in Wady Tyh ; but on a shot being 



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

 vol. ii. p. 94. 



