378 The Wilson Bulletin— No. 92 



fishers were seen going- in and out of a hole in a bank where 

 excavations for a nest seemed to be under way. 



Generally wherever the Kingfisher was noted over the 

 river there would be met on shore its near relative, the 

 Hoopoe (Upupa epopa). One Hoopoe, however, was seen 

 in Nubia, while we were passing a very attractive green island 

 south of Derr. Although an inch and a half longer than the 

 Indian Hoopoe the difi:erence between the two species is not 

 apparent to the wayside observer. Shelley says that the 

 Hoopoe breeds in Egypt. My story is not offered in proof 

 of this, but rather as illustration that boys are much the same 

 the world over.. While at Luxor I left the steamer before 

 breakfast each morning except one, and took a walk south- 

 ward from the town. There a native boy about twelve years 

 old was met, who followed about, telling me that he attended 

 the American Mission School; that he knew Mahmoud Ah- 

 med, our head dragoman on the S. S. Arabia, and various 

 other items of personal interest, but not a word was said 

 about birds, though he could see my frequent use of binoc- 

 ulars. On the day of our visit to the Valley of the Tombs 

 the walk was postponed until late in the afternoon, but the 

 boy was waiting for me, anxious to sell a nest of young 

 birds three or four days old. He said they Avere Hoopoes. 

 He was obdurate against returning the nestlings to the place 

 where he found them, so he received nothing more than an 

 Audubon-style lecture on the evils of nest-robbing. 



Sand-bars in the Nile offer enticing resting-places for the 

 water-fowl, the shore-birds, and for the boats that attempt 

 to navigate its waters. If a tourist steamer refuses to be 

 coaxed, cajoled, pushed or pried from some well-beloved 

 sand-bank, where it has rested serenely for two or three days, 

 the traveler must suffer loss of time on shore ; but when the 

 steamer " rests " no longer than one day the time may be 

 made up by running- faster, later at night, and earlier in the 

 morning; for the Nile boat's schedule seems to partake more 

 of the characteristics of rubber than of castiron. inasmuch 

 as it is flexible and elastic as well as compressible. It ap- 



