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


Seti and Rameses at Abydos. I imagine they are general in all suitable

localities. Kestrels were everywhere ; I watched one sitting for some

time on a balcony of the Heliopolis Palace Hotel. I saw two or three

Harriers up the Nile valley, but could not identify them, but Russell

Pasha told me he thought they were probably the Pallid. While

motoring near Chakchouk I saw a Harrier-like bird of a grey colour,

like a Chanting Hawk I shot in Cape Colony in 1902 ; it was skimming

low over the ground in broad daylight, but I put it down as being

possibly a Sooty Falcon.


Of Sparrow Hawks I only saw one at Heliopolis and one at the

Sacred Lake, Karnak.


Black Kites were nearly everywhere, and you can scarcely look up

in Cairo without seeing several in the air. I was told that they

constantly swoop down and pick up golf balls, and the Grenadier

officers told me the men’s dinners had to be covered up when carried

from the cook-house as these birds swooped and picked meat off the

dishes. One officer then stated he had seen one pick up a polo ball,

which statement was immediately entered in the officers’ battalion

lie-book ! At one place where our Nile steamer was moored, thirty or

forty continually hovered round, flying quite close to one, and picking

the refuse out of the water with their claws ; they then ate it on the

wing, lifting the claw to meet the beak. Since seeing this I am of

opinion that the above “lie ” should probably be erased !


I noticed one tidying up a nest in the afore-mentioned gardens

at Assouan on 31st January, and another carrying a long

stick in Cairo on 2nd February. Between Baliana and Abydos

was the only one I saw of those beautiful birds, the Black-winged

Kite ; in the brilliant sun it looked almost pure white, except for the

black on the wings, and its shape in flight reminded me of a Peregrine.


Two or three Egyptian Vultures were on a Nile sandbank near

Guerga with Griffons of which there were six or seven, and at Assouan

I watched a pair of the latter circling high above me over the Cataract.

At one place on the Nile I saw one or two White Storks.


Buff-backed Herons were everywhere from the delta to Assouan

(inclusive). The “ Paddy-birds ” were on all cultivation close to the

fellaheen at work, and to the roadsides. I never picked out any Little



