388 ' The Wilson Bulletin — No. 92 



miliar with its composition, hence prepared to reject my first 

 guide's numerous announcements of " Here it is ! " as he 

 pointed out one Pintail Duck after another, sometimes vary- 

 ing his choice with a picture of some other species. Wearied 

 at last by his impositions I told him I intended to see the 

 picture and that he must learn from some attendant where it 

 was located, which resulted in the speedy finding' of it. In 

 execution the oldest painting- in the world would do no dis- 

 credit to a modern artist. The treatment is somewhat deco- 

 rative and is sug'gestive of the Japanese manner of laying on 

 of colors. As a natural history study it is exceedingly re- 

 markable, as the following quotation from Mr. Charles 

 Whymper shows : " Probably no single work of art in all 

 Egypt has been more widely copied than the picture of geese, 

 which is now in the museum at Cairo. It came from the 

 tomb of Ne fer maat at Medum and is universally known as 

 ' the oldest picture in the world,' for it is ascribed to the 

 earliest dynasty, and approximately about MOO B.C. To a 

 naturalist it is peculiarly interesting, but the interest is linked 

 with sadness, as the subject of the picture being entirely of 

 bird-life one would have thought that bird-life would be a 

 subject of continued- interest ; but the reverse is very much 

 the case, so much so, that though this very picture is known 

 to thousands who have never been to Egypt, and many thou- 

 sands more who have been to Egypt and gone to see this 

 very picture, and bought photographs or copies of it, few or 

 any have really interest enough in it even to learn or inquire 

 what are the names of the geese depicted .... the two geese 

 at the extreme left and right are Bean Geese, birds that one 

 might expect the old-time artist to be familiar with, and the 

 same is true of the two geese in the left-hand group, which 

 are White-fronted Geese, as both are winter migrants to 

 Egypt, remaining till March. Of the two remaining birds, 

 from their markings the naturalist will have no doubt but 

 that they are Red-breasted Geese; and there is a mystery, 

 as they never come to Egypt, and being a northern bird, one 

 is utterly at a loss to explain why the artist of that long- 



