EGYPTIAN BIRDS 11 
possession to have the birds nesting around one 
than merely passing by in migrating flights, be those 
flights as amazing as they may. Birds, from what- 
ever reason is not certainly known, do not love the 
excessively hot or cold areas as breeding-places, but 
do seem to love the more moderate temperate 
climes. In Great Britain the number of birds that 
will and do breed within a very small tract of 
ground is amazing, and Mr. Kearton tells of a 
small copse in Hertfordshire in which were the 
nests, with eggs or young, of nine different species 
of birds, all within fifty yards of one another; and 
in another case, within a space of ten yards, were 
a tit’s, a flycatcher’s, and a wood wren’s nest. In 
Egypt, the number of birds breeding is not large, 
and excepting some of the great lakes with their 
margins of shallow water and swampy reeds, there 
are few places that offer any attractions for birds to 
nest in any numbers. In the groves of palms you 
do get many doves building in close proximity 
with kites and crows, and along certain stretches 
of the Nile banks large colonies of sand-martins 
build, but with these exceptions the fact remains 
that this country has not a large list of birds 
breeding in any numbers. In the great lakes of 
Lower Egypt and the Fayoum there are, however, 
