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A Morning's Bird-nesting on the Nile.



A MORNING’S BIRD-NESTING ON THE NILE.


By W. G. Pbrcival.


I was living for some time opposite the mouth of the

Atbara and constantly noticed birds on the numerous small islets

that dot the Nile at this point. So, having a morning to spare,

and the boat being at liberty, I paid them a visit. On the first,

which was a pretty islet of sand and rocks, with large tussocks

of tall grass growing between, I found, after some searching

(although it was not more than seven yards square), an egg of

the Senegal Thicknee ( CEdic?iemus senegale?isis') on a bare ledge

of stone. On a rock close by, about a yard and a half square,

was a clutch of three Spur-winged Plovers’ (. Hoplopterus sphiosus )

eggs, laid in a slight hollow. A little lower down on a sandbank,

some 15 by 2 yards, from which the then falling river had only

receded in the previous four or five days, I found three nests, or

rather hollows in the sand, containing one egg each of the

Scissor-billed Tern Rhyncops flciviventris. Drifting downstream

to another small sandbank, I lauded and found two more clutches

of Spur-wing Plovers, both hollows were sopping wet, and in

one an egg was buried, almost entirely, only a tiny portion of

shell being visible. Several Egyptian Plover (P. cegypticzis') were

flying round anxiously, but as they bury their eggs in the sand,

it is useless trying to find them unless one has time to stop and

watch the birds. Still further downstream was a nice little spit

of sand with a collection of piled up rocks at one end amongst

which tall grass luxuriated. On the islet were two Geese ( Chena -

lopex cegypticzis'). Thinking more of the pot than anything else

I shot one, the female (containing one egg). On landing I soon

spotted the nest and five eggs which I took ; amongst the grass

was a small roughly-built cup-sliaped nest, which I fancy be¬

longed to a Sparrow. Somewhere, too, was aThicknees’, judging

by the excited condition of the pair of old birds, but in spite of a

careful search I failed to find it. Some distance away were

several good sized sandbanks covered with boulders, and on one

of these, with my glasses, I could see a number of Scissor-billed

Terns sitting and, on another, Sparrows innumerable, several

Spurwiug and Egyptian Plover and a pair of Thicknees. On the



