244 TEE ZOOLOGIST. 



then falling headlong to the ground again, singing a sweet little 

 song as it falls. These two are the most striking and interesting 

 birds of this region, but the Sand-Grouse belongs to it too, since 

 it is not a bird of the cultivation and still less of the bare desert. 

 The Sand-Grouse seems to be now a rare bird in middle Egypt. 

 It may be simply bad luck, but in two visits to Egypt, in which 

 I have seen all the varieties of country which Egypt has to offer, 

 I have only once seen Sand-Grouse, though I have occasionally 

 heard them at night. 



Of the smaller birds there are the beautiful little Trumpeter 

 Bullfinch {Erythrosjnza githaginea), and a number of species of 

 Wheatear, Pipit and Lark, which frequent, either constantly or 

 partly, this desert fringe. The Bullfinch is, however, properly a 

 bird of the cultivation, being usually found along the causeways 

 which bound the irrigation basins. The Wheatears are very 

 numerous in Egypt, and while some, such as the Isabelline 

 (S. isabellina), the Common, and the Black-eared {S. albicollis), 

 seem to prefer the cultivated ground or its immediate edge, all 

 visit the desert and some are rarely seen outside it. These 

 desert forms are S. deserti and S. monacha. The latter I have 

 only seen in one of the dry valleys penetrating the cliffs, where 

 it apparently had a nest. 



Thus it may be said that, so far as Egypt is concerned, the 

 desert itself has no birds resident within it. Such birds as are 

 met with are merely birds of passage, or are making use of its 

 rocks for breeding purposes : but if we extend our definition to 

 include the fringing desert where there is a considerable xero- 

 phytic vegetation, there are a number of birds which find here 

 their congenial home. 



