112 



THE 6oLo(iii§'t 



thousand miles further up the Nile. 

 The Buffed-backed Heron is seldom 

 seen alone, but keeps in flocks of con- 

 siderable size, and I saw many on the 

 river sand bars, but many more on the 

 cultivated lands, in places fairly whit- 

 ening the fields, and large flocks were 

 seen about herds of domestic animals, 

 with whom they were very familiar; 

 even to perching on the backs of cat- 

 tle and tame buffalos, or walking 

 around them when lying down, and 

 picking flies, ticks and other insects 

 from their eyes, ears and noses, to the 

 evident satisfaction of the animals. 

 Their services are appreciated by the 

 inhabitants, who think them their 

 most beneficial bird. Anything that 

 catches flies is deserving of gratitude, 

 for this plague of Egypt has never 

 been suppressed, and there are more 

 today to the square inch than in any 

 country I ever saw, and they are the 

 most annoying, bloodthirsty, and pesti- 

 ferous. 



I saw the Black Stork (Ciconia nig- 

 ra) in four places, but the White 

 Stork (C. alba) of world-wide renown, 

 was seen at various places, without 

 being very plentiful. It was abund- 

 ant in Palestine, and I must have 

 seen several thousand of them. I no- 

 ticed 100 or more circling over or 

 alighting about a slaughter house, a 

 mile or so out from Jerusalem. As they 

 are perfectly fearless of man, they 

 will look for food anywhere. But it 

 was reserved for Turkey to show 

 these birds in greatest numbers, and 

 the fields in places were closely spot- 

 ted with them for miles. In Constan- 

 tinople, a place with a million people, 

 they were breeding in the parks, 

 shade trees or whenever it was pos- 

 sible to locate a nest. One open space 

 of less than one-half acre, and entire- 

 ly surrounded by tall buildings, and 

 located on the west side of the Gol- 

 den Horn, held seven or eight treea. 



One of these was a monster spreading 

 sycamore, with numerous forked bran- 

 ches, and at the risk of being disbe- 

 lieved must say, that I counted twenty 

 storks' nests in it, with as many more 

 in the smaller trees, so that forty 

 pair, or eighty birds were breeding in 

 this limited space. This bird is held 

 in great respect and is considered as 

 the harbinger of good luck, and so is 

 likely to keep its numbers good. There 

 are many ducks on the Nile, but they 

 are more abundant on the lakes of 

 Caior Zoological Garden. Among 

 them I noticed the Mallard (Anas 

 boschas) Pintail (Dufila acuta), Shov- 

 erller Spatula clypeata), Widgeon 

 (Mareca penelope). Scaup (Fuligula 

 marila). Tufted Duck (F. cristata) and 

 many others. Wild Geese were seen 

 several times but two distant for iden- 

 tification. 



I also recognized the White Pelica,n 

 (Pelacanus onocrotalus), and the Les- 

 ser Pelican (P. minor) while the Little 

 Grebe (Podicipides monor) are com- 

 mon in still water in cultivated sec- 

 tions. 



There are two dozen Gulls and 

 Terns in Sgypt bird list, but thev 

 scarcely go inland even on the great 

 river above Cairo, and while I thought 

 that I determined many of them, my 

 knowledge is too uncertain to write 

 about them, and so close my list of 

 some of the most noticeable birds of 

 Egypt, from observations made in the 

 month of February and March. At 

 other seasons different species might 

 be more conspicuous and these much 

 less so. 



On the whole, Egypt, though hav- 

 ing a very scant flora, is rich in bird 

 life, and more particularly so during 

 the season of migration. 



Two Old Timers. 



While at La Crescent, Minnesota, 

 the first week in May (1913) we met 



