412 
BIRD-LIFE. 
again, a single long scarlet line is extended, composed of 
thousands and thousands of Flamingoes. 
Large flocks of Pelicans can be seen fishing in company 
in certain portions of the lagoon. It is only those who 
are well acquainted with the immense numbers which 
compose these flocks, and with the outrageous appetite 
of each individual, who will accept my statement of 
the amount of fish consumed by birds in a day, as not 
being an exaggerated one. In no other part of Africa 
have I ever seen such vast numbers of Pelicans collected 
together as on the Lake of Mensaleh. Although at the 
season of the overflowing of the Nile a flock of from a 
thousand to twelve hundred is not an uncommon sight to 
be met with on the inundated plain, still it is nothing 
when compared with the flocks on the Lake of Mensaleh, 
where they cover the water to the extent of a square mile 
or more, looking, at a distance, like gigantic water-lilies. 
If anyone shoots at them they rise en masse with a 
rushing sound, not unlike the rolling of drums, which 
may be heard a mile off: besides these birds you will 
possibly see a few Swans and Wild Geese; as well as 
numberless flights of Gulls and Terns in the open 
water. 
A greater variety of species, if not as many individuals, 
are to be found sheltered in the reedy marshes, swamps, 
and paddy-fields, which border the lake : they are 
literally alive with birds. In every rice-field Full and 
Jack Snipe are to be found in hundreds; the Curlew and 
Scarlet Ibis are not so common, although small flocks of 
the latter, numbering from twenty to thirty, are to be 
seen occasionally. The different Herons seek out the 
deeper and more open places, and stalk gravely about, 
with their necks bent into the form of an S; while the 
