3382 The Zoologist — FEBRUARy, 1873. 



II. Order Picari^. Comprises eight families : — Yungidae, con- 

 taining 1 species; Cuculidse, 4 species; Upupidae, 1 species; 

 Alcedinidae, 3 species; Coraciidse, 1 species ; Meropidae, 3 species; 

 Cypselidae, 4 species ; and Caprimulgidae, 2 species. 



III. Order Accipitres. Comprises five families: — Strigidaj, 

 containing 9 species; Falconidae, 40 species; Columbidae, 8 species; 

 Pteroclidse, 3 species ; and Tetraonidae, 4 species. 



IV. Order Grall.e. Comprises three families : — Otididae, con- 

 taining 3 species ; Charadriidae, 62 species, including the cranes ; 

 and Ardeidaj, containing 9 species. 



V. Order Anseres. Comprises six families : — Phoenicopteridae, 

 containing 1 species ; Rallidse, 29 species, and including the swans, 

 geese and ducks; Pelicanidae, containing 18 species, and including 

 the terns; Laridae, 12 species; Procellariidae, 2 species; and 

 Podicepidae, 5 species. 



"VI. Order Struthiones, containing only the ostrich, the 

 authority for including which Mr. Shelley quotes from Finsch and 

 Hartlaub's « Vogel Ost-AAika's' : he did not meet with it, and failed 

 to obtain sufficient evidence of its present existence within the 

 Egypt district, bounded on the north by the Mediterranean,-on the 

 south by the second Cataract of the Nile, and on the east and west 

 by the Arabian and Lybian deserts. 



Of the 352 species contained in the preceding summary, 

 Mr. Shelley seems to feel some doubt as to the propriety of 

 including many which he has not himself observed : the missel 

 thrush, hedgesparrow, great gray shrike, jackdaw, magpie, Cornish 

 chough, swift, tawny owl, ashcoloured harrier, common kite, stock 

 dove, both the swans, &c., he considers to have been admitted into 

 the list on doubtful ground. He has taken great pains in all 

 instances to give his authority, and has done so with a candour and 

 exactness that are above all praise. The common swift of Egypt is 

 the Cypselus pallidus of dur author, who never met with C. apus; 

 and C. melba, which we regard as a great rarity in Britain, is also 

 a rare bird of passage in Egypt and Nubia, only met with in the 

 more mountainous parts during the autumn and spring. Mr. Shelley 

 thinks the common kite of Britain "has never been met with in 

 Egypt, although Ruppell goes so far as to call it common about 

 Alexandria." No mention is made of the great bustard, and we 

 may conclude it is unknown in Egypt, although it seems a 

 country well adapted to the requirements of this magnificent 



