198 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
species shot than ever before. The wily native 
who stalks up and down outside hotels with a gun 
slung over his shoulder, and seizes on unwary new- 
comers with great promises of apocryphal quail- 
and snipe-shooting, frequently—so that his patron 
shall not come home without any bag at all—sug- 
gests shooting every poor inoffensive bird within 
range. Thatdone, the poor Kite or Gull is borne 
home, and laid out on the hotel steps for the 
further honour, glory, and kudos of the native 
shekarry. 
It should always be remembered that the 
immature birds of most species differ materially 
from the adult: this is the case with all the Gulls, 
and, I own, makes their identification a matter of 
considerable difficulty. In the young there is no 
pure white and pearly grey plumage, but they are 
dirty-coloured, brown-spotted, rather uninterest- 
ing-looking birds, but as they have just as ravenous 
an appetite as their parents, and as they satisfy 
that appetite with the filth that is thrown out of a 
scavenger’s basket, they are fully as useful as the 
more attractively plumaged adults. Where they 
can get it, they like fish before anything, be it the 
sprat of the clear ocean water, or the sweepings of the 
fish-market. At Damietta, where there is a great 
