172 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
there considered rather rare. It is almost always on the 
ground in the fields and not in the desert.* 
109. LINNET, Linota cannabina (Linn.). 
Flocks were sometimes seen in the Delta, and specimens 
shot. I had noted down “Cairo, February 18th,” as the last 
appearance of this Finch; but to my surprise, on the 21st of 
April I saw three near Girgeh, but unluckily failed to get 
one. The cock which I brought home, marked the 13th of 
February, has the red breast which in England characterises 
the breeding plumage. 
Oss. BUNTINGS. 
We saw no Buntings at all. This seems singular. 
Canon Tristram obtained seven species in 
Palestine. 
110, BIFASCIATED LarRK, Certhilauda alaudipes 
(Desfontaines) ; C. salvinz, Tristr. 
Tam rather surprised that Captain Shelley did not find 
this bird commoner. I saw it twice in the market at Cairo, 
and twice in our shooting excursions, viz., at Gow and Gebel 
Silsilis. At the latter place a flock of about a dozen ap- 
peared to have taken up their quarters on a little sandy 
waste about two miles from the river. Shooting a portion 
of them did not frighten the rest away, as I saw them every 
*® Collectors naturally think that if they go a couple of miles inland 
beyond the beaten track of tourists they will find birds plentiful ; but in 
reality there is nothing beyond the limits of vegetation, a limit which 
varied greatly, but never in the largest plain we came to, extended be- 
yond a few miles from the banks of the Nile. 
