SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 145 
%28. MonrTacu’s HARRIER, Circus cineraceus (Mont). 
Captain Shelley mentions at p. 324 of his work, being 
“very sceptical of Circus cineraceus having ever been met 
with in Egypt.” It is satisfactory to have now set this 
point at rest, for whatever difference of opinion there may 
be about the young birds, there can be no mistake about 
the adult male, and we shot two fine old cocks at Gebel 
Silsilis on the 3rd of May. 
29. EGYPTIAN EAGLE-OWL, Budo ascalaphus, Sav.; 
“Buma hamra bi urun.” 
Although I visited Great Karnac by the pale moonlight, 
and lay in ambush in the mountains behind the Mem- 
nonium, I never got a sight of this fine Owl at Thebes; but 
about half way up the second Pyramid I was shown a well 
white-washed eyrie. After a great deal of poking we 
ejected the Owl, and he flew swiftly out and round to the 
other side. I sent aman after him who flushed him again, 
and he flew to the Great Pyramid, but I could not get him. 
No doubt it was from one or other of the Pyramids that 
two pairs of young birds which I saw at Cairo came. In 
one pair there was a conspicuous difference in size, which I 
have noticed to be the case in the young of the Barn Owl. 
The same thing has been recorded of the Bittern and the 
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (vide Audubon). It holds good also 
of Montagu’s Harrier, the Kestrel, and other birds of prey. 
One pair belonged to M. Marco, taxidermist and dragoman, 
who also had an old one. He had been in the Soudan. 
In Upper Egypt or Nubia he told me he had come across 
an Owl larger and darker than Budo ascalaphus. Possibly 
he referred to Huhua cinereus, of which there is a Nubian 
example in the Museum at Norwich, though that is decidedly 
not larger, but on the contrary smaller. It may however. 
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