156 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
and the rest render life in some places intolerable. 
No one quite knows what flies are till one tries 
sketching out of doors here. With your palette 
on one hand and brushes in the other, you are an 
easy prey to them, and they take every advantage 
of the fact. They will cluster by the dozen on 
your face, walk in brigades over the ridge of 
your nose, sting you on the hand, at the back 
where your palette hides them from your view, 
and even if you have a boy with a fly-wisp they 
will never leave you. I have found them at their 
worst at the edges of the cultivated land, where 
trees are often growing picturesquely, tempting 
the artist to sit in their seductive shade; with 
most dire results, as one is almost eaten alive, and 
one envies the cattle who are being so assiduously 
attended to by these kindly fly-catchers. 
The Egret is one of the many birds that the 
dragoman makes the tourist happy by calling “the 
Ibis,” and the number that return to their friends 
gleefully telling how they saw a flock of Ibises 
grows every season. In the article on the Ibis it 
is shown how ludicrously untrustworthy is the 
dragoman’s Natural History information. 
The Buff-backed Heron may often be seen 
flying up or down the river in little parties of 
