CHAPTER V. 
I HAVE often thought it would be convenient if collectors 
would give a short summary of the results of their expedi- 
tions. The only absolutely new bird to Egypt which I can 
claim to have got was the Lesser White-fronted Goose, 
bought of M. Filliponi; for the Norwich Museum contained 
a specimen of the Desert Buzzard* from Rosetta; the 
English Swift was admitted to inhabit Egypt, though it had 
never been obtained there; and the Marbled Duck was 
once got by Canon Tristram, albeit the fact was not made 
public; but these three species now appear as Egyptian for 
the first time on positive information. The confirmation of 
Captain Shelley’s suppositions concerning the first two is of 
great interest. With regard to the Green-backed Porphyrio 
and African Cormorant which we got at the Faioum, though 
they had escaped the observation of the English, they had 
been noticed by some of the continental authors; and here 
again the corroboration which we are now able to give to 
the latter was very desirable. 
Several of the birds collected by us differed in a marked 
manner from British specimens, but while giving the points 
of difference under their respective heads (see the Stone- 
chat and Sand Martin), I have felt that it would be too 
great a riskt+ to describe any of them as specifically distinct. 
* Also see the Huddersfield Naturalist, Vol. II., p. 304. 
t+ It would appear that quite seven-tenths of the names which have 
been bestowed on “new birds” within the last few years, have already 
sunk into synonyms, and the advance of science has thereby been im- 
peded, 
