304 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



CHAP. XVIII. 



Castle of Rossetta — HouJwu — Lapwing — Turtle- 

 doves — Cheveche — Lotus — -Racket — Cassia — Sy- 

 camore — Schishme — Dour r a — Indian- pink — 

 Wild- ducks — Thrushes — Woodcock. 



My excursions in the environs of Rossetta were 

 frequent, and they were always new sources of 

 pleasure and instruction. I did not fail to carry 

 my fowling-piece with me ; it enabled me to pro- 

 cure the different species of birds which give ani- 

 mation to the plains, before so interesting, from the 

 variety and the abundance of the plants cultivated 

 there. I went, the 24th of October *, to an old 

 ruined castle which is at some distance, and to the 

 north of Rossetta. It was designed, as well as an- 

 other placed upon the opposite shore of the Nile, 

 as a defence to the entrance of the river. At pre- 

 sent, both the one and the other are a very little 

 short of a league from the sea. The one I am 

 speaking of, the construction of which is generally 



* I am well aware that the date of my excursions will appear 

 very trifling to all but naturalists : they will feel that it is essen- 

 tial to determine, for example, the epochas at which I may have 

 encountered such and such a bird, in order to ascertain that of 

 their passage into Egypt. 



attributed 



