516 ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES 
51. ERYTHROSPIZA GITHAGINEA. Desert-Bullfinch. 
Rather common in all the desert districts of Upper Egypt 
and in places which are either stony or but sparsely covered 
with bushes. Often in flocks of four or five individuals. 
Observed even in the cultivated country, but only among 
ruins and old walls. 
52, AMYDRUS TRISTRAMI. ‘Tristram’s Grakle. 
This remarkable dusky black-blue bird, with rusty-brown 
wings, was only once seen and observed in a ravine near the 
monastery of Mar-Saba. It nests in the cliffs in the neigh- 
bourhood of the monastery, and all day long one sees it in 
great numbers either sitting on the roots, towers, and walls 
of the old buildings or flying round them. The Greek monks 
have so tamed these Grakles that every day, at the same hour, 
they come to the call of a brother of the order who feeds 
them with bread. We had great difficulty in obtaining a 
specimen, for the monks permit no one to shoot them. I sent 
the bird to Herr v. Homeyer for identification. 
53. STURNUS VULGARIS. Common Starling. 
Only in the first days of our journey and again at the end 
of February did we meet with the common Starling in Lower 
Egypt. At the lake of Birket-el-Karéin great flocks of them 
pass the night in the bushes along the shore. 
54. Corvus conax. Raven. 
Throughout Egypt in all suitable places in the towns. 
Among the desert-mountains, in the desert itself among the 
old ruins, at the large lakes, and on the sandbanks of the 
Nile our Raven was frequently observed. In the interior of 
the temple of Edfu a pair were nesting in the covered and 
almost perfectly dark hall of the building. On the Red Sea 
and in the Arabian desert Ravens were also observed. They 
