Birds by the Wayside 385 



Amenophis II, Seti I, and those of other Pharaohs, the Pale 

 Crag-Swallows were flying- back and forth in the narrow 

 valley, as beyond doubt their ancestors have done through all 

 the ages since these mighty " Kings of the South and North " 

 were laid to rest in their wonderful rock-hewn tombs. 



Warbler identification in North America is attended with 

 puzzles and perplexities, but when our Warblers are set over 

 against the Warblers of the Old World they appear on the 

 whole to be brighter in colors and easier to name. Let one 

 read the handbook description of Old World Warblers and 

 he will feel their lack of salient points of difference. Let 

 him examine museum specimens and he feels the same lack, 

 as he feels it also in the field. The difficulties to be sur- 

 mounted in identification will be appreciated when it is known 

 that to a dearth of prominent markings there is added brev- 

 ity in the glimpses attainable of the birds as they fly from 

 one bean-stalk to another, or show themselves momentarily 

 in the garden patches, for it was in such places, not in trees, 

 that I found, them, and felt reasonably confident of my iden- 

 tifications in the cases of the Fantail, Black-headed, Chiff- 

 chafl:, and Blue-throated Warbler. 



Perhaps the most winsome of the birds seen on the Nile 

 trip were the Chats. The three species met were the Desert 

 Chat (Saxicola deserti), the White-rumped Chat {Saxicola 

 leucophygia) and a Black-eared Chat (either Saxicola aurita 

 or Saxicola amphileuca) . The meetings with all of them 

 were in the southern stages of the journey on the border of 

 Nubia and in the Sudan. Several of the White-rumped 

 Chats were seen in the desert waste at the foot of the Rock 

 of Abusir, where their dainty motions and showy dress con- 

 trasted strangely with their rugged surroundings. The Chat 

 with black ear-coverts answered the description of 5". aurita, 

 though S. ainphilenca seems to be the common form of that 

 region. 



A grove of palm-trees at Aswan looked inviting from the 

 steamer's deck. To reach it was a long before-breakfast 

 walk across the sands ; when reached the palm-trees were 



