Captain John S. Reeve—Some Birds in Egypt and Palestine 129


the first I took to be C. corax by their note as they were circling above

the Valley of Hinnom which I may mention runs on the south end of

the city of Jerusalem ; the higher up of the two kept diving down with

closed wings as Rooks sometimes do in stormy weather, and I wondered

whether this was some form of display by the male, it being near

breeding time ? Across this valley towards the Mount of Olives on the

east side could be seen Ravens of one species or another wending their

way by ones and twos each evening an hour or two before sunset.

I saw one Brown-necked on the Jericho road and I believe one Fan¬

tailed sitting on the city wall near the Dung Gate, but several of these

last flew across the north end of the Dead Sea as I was talking to Major

Tullock (in charge of the Concession works there) ; very interesting

to see the potash and bromide which is being obtained in large quantities

but this must not be written of here !


It is interesting to note that in The Ibis of 1865, Tristram states

that Jackdaws were common at Jerusalem and Shechem and that

numbers resorted to the Dome of the Rock (in the Temple area).

I thought I saw one just outside the south wall of the city, but it

popped round a corner so quickly that I could not swear to it; at

any rate I saw no other in the eleven days I was in Palestine ; Luke

and Keith-Roach in the list of birds in their Handbook of Palestine

and Trans-Jordan give the Jackdaw as a common winter visitor

and locally resident.


In Tristram’s notes in 1859, he says the Egyptian Vulture was

universally abundant and bred in great numbers in the Valley of the

Kedron and that the Griffon was common in the Judaean hills and

between Jerusalem and Jericho. The only Vultures I saw were a

long way off between Engannim and Shechem and I should say they

were a pair of Griffons ; as we left on 18th February, it is natural

that we saw no Egyptian as they do not arrive till the end of the

month ; it is interesting to note that at the time Tristram wrote

there was hardly a single house outside the city walls ; now there

is a large modern town with large hotels, ’buses, motors, etc. ; if

the Egyptian Vulture nests in the Kedron Valley it is probably some

way down from Jerusalem and the village of Siloam. I saw Great

Tits at the Garden Tomb and elsewhere. Greenfinches, Chaffinches,



