6396 Extracts from the Letters of 



observed the sand-banks occupied by numbers of aquatic birds, geese, 

 cranes, pelicans, &c, walking about the outstretched monsters as if 

 possessed with a feeling that they were in no peril of their lives in 

 the society of these ugly reptiles. A boat, in rounding the bank, fired 

 a gun at the crocodiles, but not within range, which had the effect of 

 sending them all pell-mell into the water, but in a few minutes after- 

 wards the noses of one or two might be seen emerging, and soon the 

 sand-bank became re-peopled with the fugitives. We little expected 

 at this season to find crocodiles half so numerous, seeing how cold the 

 mornings are now, and how low the temperature of the Nile is, 

 compared with that which it obtains a few months later or earlier than 

 the present. — p. 86. 



Critique on Popular Views of the Zoology and Vegetation of the 

 Nile. — The ornithology of the Nile is, as to its subject, less susceptible 

 of exaggeration than its zoology, for the multitudes of water-fowl that 

 haunt its stream may justify the use of the word " swarming." The 

 same expression might be applied with almost as much correctness to 

 the various birds of prey that hover over its banks, far exceeding in 

 variety of species and number of individuals any amount of the same 

 tribes in other countries and, indeed, constituting one of the most 

 singular features of this strange and interesting land. Vast are the 

 flocks of geese, pelicans, storks, cranes, spoonbills, flamingoes, shags 

 and other aquatic birds that overspread the river. — p. 105. 



Cultivation of the Valley of the Nile. — The valley of the Nile is 

 one vast uninterrupted kitchen garden, from the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean to the second cataract, a distance of a thousand miles ; and, 

 I believe, it continues to be such a garden of herbs far beyond that 

 point into Abyssinia. — p. 108. 



Birds mostly akin to English.— Very few of the birds have much 

 beauty of colouring, and those commonly seen are either identical 

 with or are related to the species with which we are familiar in Eng- 

 land, such as the common sparrow, the gray wagtail, the Royston 

 crow, the skylark, which abounds in every field in Lower and Central 

 Egypt, the Nile plover, very like our common peewit (also a native), 

 turtle doves, blue rock-pigeons, besides the kestrel, hen-harrier and 

 various other hawks identical with or closely resembling British 

 species, as are the owl, kingfisher and many of the water fowl, some 

 of which latter, as the flamingo, egrets, &c, are common to this 

 country and southern Europe. Of course there are many birds exclu- 

 sively African, as pelicans, paddy-birds, &c, but these are seldom 

 distinguished by any elegance or gaiety of plumage ; although, of 



