110 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
It loves the deserts, and as far as I know never 
leaves them save to come down, as the Sand-grouse 
do, to some water-hole. Round the Pyramids, and 
even within sight of the babel of guides and donkey 
boys, this child of the desert may be seen, but it 
always keeps, as it were, in touch with the bound- 
less open sandy tracts to which it can beat a safe 
retreat. In one of the large show-cases in the 
great Central Hall of the British Museum of 
Natural History, they are shown in a group with 
other desert birds and beasts, but it is sad to 
see how the colours of their plumage get—even 
with all the care of dust-proof cases—dull, faded 
and dingy, giving little idea of the brilliantly clear, 
delicately coloured plumage of the living bird, as 
seen under the clear blue of an Egyptian sky. 
