AND LOWER EGYPT. 305 



attributed to Saint Louis, at the time of the cru- 

 sades, is almost entirely demolished ; it mounted 

 still some pieces of cannon, but totally unfit for 

 service. Monuments far more ancient had been 

 employed in building it ; several stones were to be 

 still seen there, ornamented with hieroglyphics. I 

 had drawings taken of some of these antique stones, 

 and dispatched them to the minister Bertin, with 

 several others of whose fate I am equally ignorant. 



The date-trees are very greatly multiplied in all 

 these countries. Several kinds of birds perch on 

 their long foliage, whilst others hop, from branch 

 to branch, in the thick hedges of the enclosures. 

 I killed that day houhous, lapwings, turtle-doves, 

 and a cheveche. 



The first of these birds, although very common 

 in the environs of Rossetta, and, as I have been 

 informed, in those of Damietta, was not known 

 to naturalists previous to my journey into Egypt. 

 I sent descriptions of them, with notes, to Buf- 

 fon ; and his ingenious fellow-labourer, Guenau 

 de Montbcillard, has published them in the Natu- 

 ral History of Birds, article of thchouhou of Egypt. 

 Although this little discovery in ornithology be 

 my property, I will not repeat the details of it 

 here, the work of Buffon being in the possession 

 of every body. The little which I am going to 



vol. 1. x add, 



