10 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
going to those very places. Then no longer would 
the hooting of owls be heard in the ruins, no 
swallows nesting in the rock-hewn tombs, and no 
coot and wildfowl would ever be seen on the 
small sheets of water or sacred lakes that adjoin the 
temples. That all these birds are there means a 
very great added interest to these places to every 
one, and to some of us bird enthusiasts the living 
interest is greater than that which we can whip 
up for those heavy, severe, architectural achieve- 
ments, or wild chaotic masses of ruined masonry. 
Elsewhere the point of the scarcity of bird life 
in the hot summer months has been spoken of, 
but it is also curious to note that there are just 
about three to five weeks of mid-winter during 
which there is no migratory wave seemingly going 
on at all, up or down the Nile valley. No bands, 
great or small, of birds heading due north or due 
south are ever to be seen, and the remark is often 
made on the paucity of bird life, some persons even 
declaring that it is “a birdless land.” That the 
native birds are very small in number is true, but the 
total number of birds, and varieties of birds, that 
come for a time and pass on is very great. Those 
that live in temperate climes do, however, have the 
best of the deal, as it must ever be a greater 
