5138 THE ZooLoGist—NoOvEMBER, 1876. 
With its grand and mysterious river and numerous lakes and 
marshes, Egypt has ever been celebrated for the abundance of its 
birds. The ancient inhabitants of the land worshipped many cf 
them which they regarded as beneficial in destroying noxious 
insects and vermin. The sacred ibis, the chief object of their 
cultus, was probably a species imported by them, and one which 
was never common on the Lower Nile, where it is now unknown. 
The prophet Isaiah, in a much-disputed passage, apostrophizes 
Egypt as “the land of whirring wings.”* We have read the first 
impressions of scores of travellers, not given to the study of birds, 
who were astonished at the multitudes of water-fowl to be seen on 
the lakes bordering the Nile. In the winter time ducks of various 
species may be measured on Lake Menzaleh by the acre. Mr. 
Gurney tells us how the natives catch coots in the dark on this 
lake with casting-nets. Among the palm-groves, the only birds 
met with, besides the ubiquitous Turtur Senegalensis, were night 
herons, hiding in the thick foliage near the tops of the trees. 
The white wagtail was the commonest of the smaller birds in 
the Delta in the winter. “And really they rather pall upon you 
after a time,” writes Mr. Gurney, “for one sees white wagtails 
at every step, in every field, on every pathway, and frequently in 
company with sandpipers on the sandbanks—singly, in pairs, in 
family parties, in flocks of hundreds; and sometimes they came 
upon the Diabeyha.” 
Of course everybody who visits Egypt has something to say on 
the subject of quails. Mr. Gurney quotes from Sonini, who pub- 
lished his ‘ Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt’ in 1799, that the 
quantity of quails at Alexandria (on their migration) is really past 
belief. Four were to be had at the market for three farthings. 
“The crews of merchant-ships were fed upon them; and there 
existed at the Consul’s office at Alexandria several complaints 
preferred by mariners against their captains for giving them 
nothing but quails to eat.” This reminds us of the old stories 
about the abundance of salmon in Scotch households. “ Extra- 
ordinary as this may appear,” Mr. Gurney adds, “I can quite 
believe it from what I have seen and heard.” From the middle of 
March until the middle of April is the time of the passage of 
quails through Egypt. At that period Mr. Gurney says, “ out of 
* Isaiah xviii. 1. In our version, “ Woe to the land shadowing with wings,” but 
the rendering above is the most literal translation of the Hebrew. 
