114 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
his faithful dentist and immediately opens his jaws 
and releases the prisoner, to whom one hopes he 
expresses profound regret. 
It is to be seen on the sand-banks in Lower 
Egypt, but gets noticeably less frequent as one 
journeys into Upper Egypt, and one is disposed 
to think is growing less in number year by year, as 
so many of the pure river-side birds are, by reason 
of the now continually passing, noisy, wash-pro- 
ducing steamers. 
It seems to be distinctly a quarrelsome bird, 
anyhow when breeding, and both male and female 
are more often than not to be seen having 
some row or another with some poor inoffensive 
bird who has ventured too near their nest. At 
times it stands up practically perpendicular, and 
jerks its head and body up and down with clock- 
work regularity till the cause of its upset has 
ceased, when it draws in its head and sinks it 
deep between its shoulders, as is shown in the 
accompanying drawing. Its nest is a mere de- 
pression in the sand, and it lays three or four eggs 
which are very similar to our common Green 
Plover or Lapwing. 
Von Heuglin relates a Mohammedan legend : 
That Allah, having asked all things great and small 
