THE SWALLOWS 6] 
seeing the Common Swallow was February 1, 
1908, at the Mat Lake, Kamak; but I have no 
doubt that at some parts up or down the river 
they can be seen all the winter through. After 
February, day by day, the great hosts of them, all 
flying with earnest intent due north, makes one 
of the most interesting sights to English eyes in 
all Egypt, as one can well believe that some of 
those very birds will be the first to greet one on 
his return home in April or May. I have often 
seen them hawking about over the waters of some 
small imsect-haunted pool in friendly company 
with their Oriental cousins, and have always 
marvelled at their leaving a land with its constant 
sun and amazing wealth of flies and insects, for 
our own comparatively inclement clime and poor 
food-supply. In a room I slept in, at the hut at 
Deir-el-Bahari, there was a swallow’s nest just 
over my bed, and though it was too early when 
I was there in January for them to start breeding, 
on several occasions the Egyptian Swallows came 
fluttering in through the unglazed windows, just 
to take a look round and see that all was right 
for later on. On February 14 I saw two, which 
were clearly mated birds, on the ground, picking 
up scraps of twigs and straw, and then rapidly 
