138 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
at any rate I think they are bolder. I have seen one swoop 
at a Booted Eagle, and I have also seen one feather a 
Hooded Crow which ventured too near its nest. 
16B. LESSER KESTREL, Fako cenchris (Cuv.) 
On the 13th of April, as we were riding across the wide 
treeless plain of the Memnonium, we saw a great many 
Kestrels. They were almost too scattered to term a flock: 
the game they were after was large insects. On shooting 
a pair I found to my delight that they were the Lesser 
Kestrel, which I had been long looking out for. They 
really had not seemed any smaller than the Common 
Kestrel, which in appearance and flight they exactly re- 
semble. This flock consisted of both sexes; one I shot 
was a hen (cf. Ibis, 1864, p. 236), the other was a cock, 
which still retained immature plumage on the wings. 
17. SPARROW HAWK, Accipiter nisus (Linn.). 
Very common, and I am surprised that it has not an 
Arab name, but the natives of the land of Ham are “lum- 
pers,” not “splitters.” I need not recapitulate the habits of 
so well known a bird. There are many stories extant of 
its audacity, to which the following is now to be added. I 
was sitting on the deck of our Nile boat, or Diabeyha as it 
is called, with my friends, discussing the fragrant Ceranz, 
when a terror-stricken Sparrow flew under the divan almost 
between my legs, and behind him came the pursuer in the 
shape of a mettlesome little cock Sparrow-Hawk. He was 
baffled of his prey this time, and before we could rise from 
our seats he had made good his escape, and the Sparrow, 
perceiving that the coast was clear, flew away also, but still 
in evident trepidation. I expected to see the chase re- 
newed, but the Hawk had clearly had a fright, and the 
