108 Captain Clark Kennedy on the Avifauna 
ranean, at Alexandria. Having “ done ” all the lions of that 
city, and enjoyed some excellent Snipe-shooting in its vicinity, 
we went on to Cairo, and remaining there for a couple of 
weeks, ascended the Nile into Nubia, and we spent nearly two 
months in collecting specimens of the birds we met with by 
the banks of that venerable river. So much, however, has 
been written in f The Ibis' upon Egyptian ornithology al¬ 
ready, and the subject has been so well treated by my friend 
Captain G. E. Shelley in his lately published work on the 
birds of that country, that I do not intend to refer to this 
portion of my travels. But I will give a brief outline of 
our proceedings after the 17tli March, 1870. On that day 
we left Cairo for Ismailia, intending to see the Suez Canal, 
just then opened, while our dragoman and servants and our 
camels, with the impedimenta for our trip through the Sinaitic 
Desert, went on ahead to Suez, where the Bedouin Arabs of 
the Tor tribe were to furnish our escort and be all ready to 
start on our arrival at that place. It was our intention to 
leave Cairo upon the 16th of March; but on arriving at 
the railway station, at 9.30 a.m., we were disappointed to find 
that there was no chance of getting to Ismailia that day, as, 
owing to the strong south winds of the previous day, the line 
of rails for some six miles to the westward of that place had 
been completely buried by drifting sand, which in some spots 
was many feet in depth. Thus situated we returned to our 
hotel, and took a long donkey-ride into the desert to the east of 
Cairo, and beyond the famed petrified forest, where I found 
the largest flock I ever saw of the prettily plumaged Ery- 
throspiza githaginea , and obtained a specimen of the Bifas- 
ciated Lark ( Certhilauda desertorum) , which cannot be said 
to be often met with. In a deserted burial-ground, near the 
tombs of the Cailliphs, we found, on our return, several pairs 
of the Rock-Thrush ( Monticola saxatilis) . In another Arab 
cemetery, on the outskirts of the city, I saw Monticola cyanus 
in some numbers. I entirely agree with Captain Shelley 
Birds of Egypt/ p. 71) that this is a far commoner species 
than M. saxatilis : but I have never seen both species so close 
together; for the two burial-grounds were but a few hundred 
