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stretched up their necks and opened their mouths with the lovely

interior colour of orange-red. They were fed on small pieces of

fresh raw meat, mixed with an insectivorous food brought for

the purpose in tins, from England.


Hoopoes nest very early in Egypt, as early as Black¬

birds do in England. The first nest I came across was at the

end of February, when we were voyaging between the first

and second Cataract of the Nile ; at Kalabsheh, famous for the

remains of what must have been one of the most magnificent

Temples of Egypt, but now in ruins from the ravages of some

great earthquake aided by Time.


Banding at Kalabsheh, and surrounded by the natives of

the place, I at once pursued my search for young Hoopoes, for I

had not yet received the brood just described. It was fast

growing dark, and we should be leaving at early dawn on the

following morning, so that it was a case of ‘ now or never.’ On

hearing my enquiries in broken Arabic, a good looking young

man stepped out of the crowd, and said, “Aiwa, henna”—“Yes,

here,”—pointing with a graceful wave of a brown arm and hand

towards some rocks at the back of the village. As usually

happened, the whole assembly of some thirty or forty men and

boys immediately commenced to gesticulate and shout at me and

each other, until I was forced to put my fingers in my ears, and

run.


This seemed to improve matters, for the original announcer

of the whereabouts of a Hoopoe’s nest, came after me, and

plucking my sleeve, said, “ Taala maaya, henna ! henna !


“ Come with me, here ! here ! ” — as he walked ahead through a

grove of date palms, which towered up above us, and through

whose graceful branches the stars were beginning to gleam with

the brilliancy peculiar to an Eastern sky. Then it suddenly

struck him that it was already too dark to find the nest without

artificial light, so making me, by expressive gestures, understand

that I was to wait whilst he fetched something, he ran off to the

dababeah, returning in a few minutes with a candle and some

matches. Then he led me,—followed in the near distance by

several boys, to whom I vainly shouted “ Emshi ruhli ”—“Go

away,"—towards the rocks that skirted the mud houses of the

village.


Clambering up to a narrow fissure, formed by one huge

boulder on another, he lighted the candle and peered in, his

black eyes glittering near the flame ; whilst I followed, a boy on

either side supporting either arm, under the impression that I

could not possibly 7 manage the rocky ground without such aid.



