SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 235 
the last diabeyha on the river, which accounts for our 
getting the Scissorbill and sundry other species not met 
with by Messrs. Adams and Smith. Its novel: beak is an 
eccentricity of nature which no one who confines himself 
merely to British birds has any idea of, the mandibles being 
flattened perpendicularly, and the lower one projecting be- 
yond the upper a long way—tr} inch in one specimen, which 
Ishot. That, it is true, was the longest. It varies much, and 
in another the projection was only & of an inch; but I refer 
the reader to Captain Shelley’s picture, which will give a 
much better idea than any description of mine. 
We were lucky enough to see a great many, and to watch 
their habits under very favourable circumstances, especially 
at Erment, Silsilis, and Keneh. The first appearance was 
on the 20th of March, near the spot mentioned by Captain 
Shelley. We had landed to shoot some fowl on the sand- 
bank, and the reports put up a flock of about a dozen 
Scissorbills. We at once left the fowl to take care of them- 
selves, and after some manceuvring I succeeded in shooting 
three of the coveted birds. Their unusual length of wing 
makes them look so much larger than they really are, that 
they easily pass between large shot. Terns are generally 
easy birds to get near, and the Scissorbills, however different 
in other respects, proved to be no exception. When we 
afterwards met them at Silsilis five were killed at one shot ; 
and that day a curious thing happened. A Scissorbill was 
shot at about thirty yards’ distance, and when I picked it 
up a gunwad was sticking to its wing. 
There is good reason to believe that they follow the 
course of the Nile as far as the Delta. I obtained confirma- 
tion of the occurrence of one at Damietta (Ibis, 1864, 
p- 243), and they were seen by us at various points as far 
north as Minieh, and again two were shot at Benisouef, and 
two more were seen on the 21st of May, within twenty 
miles of Cairo, They fly very low over the water, every 
