SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. |e ie) 
common in more southern regions, though driven from its 
stronghold in Egypt. 
A statement has been made that it is still a regular 
migrant in small numbers to Lake Menzaleh, but for this 
T could find no foundation. If it occurs, it is only as a 
straggler, and the most unlooked-for rarity. The only 
reliable instance that I could hear of its being seen of 
recent date was by Captain Arkwright, who being familiar 
with it in Abyssinia, may be supposed to know the bird 
well. He saw one at the Faioum. There are also two said 
to be Egyptian, but I attach very little credence to them, 
in the mixed collection at the Kair-El-Aiainy at Cairo, and 
two or three more in our British Museum with “Egypt” on 
their stands, but I should not dream of placing the slightest 
reliance on these after my experience of wrong localities 
placed upon British Birds in the national collection. 
A few years ago I saw an Ibis in a garden at Eastbourne 
in Sussex, the property of Mr. Hurst. It had been shot in 
the neighbouring parish of Bulverhithe, and being only 
winged, and that slightly, was purchased and kept alive by 
a huckster. From him it passed to the keeper of a public 
house, and from him to Mr. Hurst. It was generally sup- 
posed that it had escaped from a ship, as vessels come 
rather near to that portion of the coast, but there is no 
proof that it was not a voluntary migrant. As it was in 
good condition and not shy, I was able to make a careful 
examination and compare it with a specimen of [dis ethiopica. 
There was a difference, and the conclusion I came to was 
that it was the Indian /d:s melanocephalus.* 
Other birds were venerated in Egypt besides the Ibis, 
though it is as hard to understand what guided the ancient, 
* In Gerbe’s edition of “ Degland” (II. p. 327), it is stated that the 
Prince Bonaparte turned the /é/s @thiopica of Egypt out of the 
European list, and admitted J. melanocephalus of India in lieu thereof. 
