368 Mr. E. Cavendish Taylor on Birds of Egypt, 
XXVI.— A few additional Notes on Birds of Egypt. 
By E. Cavendish Taylor^ M.A.^ F.Z.S.’^ 
C' 
I LEFT Naples for my fourth visit to Egypt on March 9th, 
1878, and arrived at Alexandria on the morning of the 14th. 
Our steamer was accompanied nearly the whole of the voyage 
by considerable numbers of Earns leucopheeus and Earns 
melanocephaluSy the latter already at that date in full breeding- 
plumage, with black head well developed. These were the 
only Gulls I saw until we came in sight of Alexandria, when 
the peculiar Egyptian race of Earns fuscns, with the very dark 
mantle, appeared in great numbers. On March 17th I went 
on to Cairo, which was my head quarters until iVpril 16th. 
On March 21st I visited the Pyramids of Gizeh, where I 
found, as usual, those regular habitnes of the locality, Falco 
lanarins, Bnbo ascalaphus, and Corvus umbrinns. I also saw 
numbers of a bird I should not have expected to find in such 
a place— Sylvia rueppelli. On March 27th I went to Halouan, 
where there is an excellent hotel in the middle of the desert, 
fifteen miles due south of Cairo. The raison d’etre of 
Halouan and its hotel is a copious spring of sulphureous 
water, celebrated for its efficacy in cutaneous and other dis¬ 
eases. I did not find Halouan a very good place for collect¬ 
ing ; but it is the best head quarters from which to visit 
Sahara and the Pyramids of Dashoor. I remained three days 
at Halouan, and then returned to Cairo. On April 6th I went 
to Port Said, passing a night at Ismailia on the way. I found 
Port Said a very good place for Terns and Gulls, but I did 
not get much else. Port Said has the great merit of possess¬ 
ing a first-rate hotel. I stayed there three days, and then 
returned to Cairo, where I remained until April 16th, when 
I went to Damietta, where I made the acquaintance of Mr. 
Eugene Eillipponi, a resident in that town, of whom I had 
heard from Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., and from whom I got 
some rather nice birds. At Damietta I came in for spring 
visitants, and found Oriolns galbnla, Cncnlns canorns, and 
Ynnx torqnilla far more numerous than I had ever before 
* See for previous Notes Ibis, 1859, p. 41, and 1867, p. 48. 
