124 Captain John S. Reeve—Some Birds in Egypt and Palestine


and one is still liable to fall among thieves, and that not only between

Jerusalem and Jericho ! The main roads, since the British occupa¬

tion, are as good as any in England, and the hotels in Jerusalem are

up-to-date, this by the way.


I have not put scientific names as where cases of sub-species arise

owing to circumstances I could not guarantee them, and it is obvious

that in the commoner species, such as Black Kite, Hoodie, and House

Sparrow, they were the Egyptian forms.


“ Up the Nile valley 55 means somewhere between Cairo and

Assouan !


Dealing first with the Egyptian birds, I saw a pair of Brown-necked

Ravens, in the Wady Hof (near Helouan). Hooded Crows were very

common in Cairo, the Fayoum, and elsewhere. Starlings I only saw

at Chakchouk (Fayoum) ; most noticeable about these birds was the

large white spots all over the breast. I believe that only in the first

year do birds here have any white points to the breast feathers,

but in the Fayoum birds they were so striking for their size and

whiteness, and they surely could not all have been young birds.

Nicoll states that Poltaratsky’s Starling is common in the Fayoum,

but he does not mention this as a distinctive mark ; can any reader

throw some light on this point ?


I saw two or three Trumpeter Bullfinches on Tutankhamen’s tomb.

House Sparrows were everywhere abundant. Crested Larks (Galerita

cristata maculata Nicoll) were at Chakchouk and Assouan.


The White Wagtail was common at Chakchouk and elsewhere;

I got within a few yards of a dozen or more on the edge of the desert

at Heliopolis, but they were also in the streets, on the outskirts. I saw

one Pipit (Meadow ?) at Lake Karoun, Chakchouk.


In the Assouan public garden near the Cataract Hotel, I saw a pair

of Nile Valley Sunbirds and White-vented Bulbuls were to be seen

in the gardens at Heliopolis and at Chakchouk, where the Chiffchaff was

also very common, as also at Assouan. The only other Warbler I saw

was unknown to me; it was skulking on or near the ground in a private

garden at Heliopolis. I thought it might be the Sardinian or Graceful.


Two or three Song Thrushes were in the same garden, and a Blue

Rock Thrush (Western form) I saw at the Great Pyramid, and another



