312 Rough Notes from the Mediterranean.


to breed in, but trees are very scarce within the walls. I

watched some for a considerable time flying about the huge

stones at the Jews’ wailing place, they are sometimes kept in

cages as I noticed a few with some Barbary Doves, there may

also have been hybrids between the two, as I have put down

“ seemed to breed with the Barbary Turtle.” T. turtur and T.

douraca also occur in Jerusalem.


I observed that widely distributed Insect the Humming¬

bird Hawk-motli near Bethlehem. The wild flowers such as the

crimson anemone and cyclamen were very pretty, the former in

some places making the ground appear quite red.


March 27th found us at Alexandria, en route for Cairo.

Birds seemed numerous, for I noticed many Hoopoes, Kites, and

Vultures, besides flocks of the Buff-backed Heron ( Bubulcus

lucidus) especially in the vicinity of cattle, they were all in the

pure white winter plumage, the ornamental buff plumes not

having yet been assumed, though they are said to be developed

in the beginning of April. These birds are palmed off on the

credulous traveller as “ Sacred Ibises,” a bird of course with

which they have nothing whatever to do, Ibis cethiopica at all

events at the present time being very rare in Egypt, though Mr.

E. C. Taylor saw a genuine Sacred Ibis which had been killed in

Tower Egypt as recently as 1877 (“ Ibis,” 1S78, p. 372).


Cairo swarms with Hooded Crows and Kites, the latter

was quite the most conspicuous bird, at any time dozens could

be seen gracefully gliding in circles overhead or perched on some

elevated situation. I believe the commonest species is the

Egyptian Kite ( Milvrts cegyptius ) which is distinguished by the

adult having the bill and cere yellow; some writers have stated

that the Black Kite (d/. migrans) (which is the commoner bird

above Cairo according to Mr. S. S. Allen) is the most numerous

species in that city, but as Gurney pointed out in “Ibis,” 1879,

the yellow bill of the Egyptian Kite is assumed gradually,

frequently the adult plumage being attained before this has been

acquired, and it is possible that birds in this phase may have

been taken for Black Kites.


The Senegal Turtle-Dove is also very Common, I noticed

many flying about, it is so tame that it nests sometimes even



