brilliant male birds sitting singing something almost worthy to be
called a song,--the ordinary sound is this rather monotonous single
note-call. Its food is distinctly hard food, as we say of a cage-bird,
and it spares no growing crop--maize, grass, mustard, corn, all come
alike to it--but with this bird, as with many others, one does wonder
how they support existence in the arid, plantless deserts, for you see
them quite commonly there, as well as on cultivated ground. I have seen
them in English bird-fanciers' shops, but have no knowledge as to
whether they are good cage-birds; the one thing, however, which might
make them such is of course in their love of hard grain food, and if
they can be kept in health, they would certainly be most engaging pets,
as they are very lively in their movements, and always seem to be bright
and cheery.
HOODED CROW
Corvus cornix
Head, throat, wings, tail, beak, and legs black, with a gloss of
purple or green on most of the feathers; remainder of plumage grey,
eyes dark-brown. Total length, 18 inches.
A very common bird throughout Egypt. It seems strange that this should
be the only Crow--the pure black one has never been noticed--and if any
black crow-like bird is noticed it will probably be found to be the
Raven. Shelley says, "It begins breeding towards the end of February,
when its nest may be procured in every clump of sont trees,"[4] but I
have seen young ones with their parents flying about in early February,
which would mean they must have been hatched much earlier, and it would
therefore seem certain that they rear two broods in the year. It does
not seem here to have quite the same character that it has elsewhere--it
is less aggressive, tamer, not such a highwayman-robber sort of
bird--and though it is so common I cannot ever remember to have seen a
flock of them together in the real open country, they seem to go in
pairs generally; but in towns and such places as the Zoological Gardens
of Cairo they do foregather in large numbers. Its food is generally
carrion, but it will take any living thing--lizards, mice, and even
beetles--that comes in its way, and I have no doubt rob the nests of
small birds, not only of eggs but also of the unfledged young. It is
distinctly a handsome bird and it walks well, holding its head high,
whilst its flight is strong and easy.
[4] The term "sont trees" in Egypt is applied to acacia trees.
It was entirely owing to a certain Crow, we are told, that Cairo got its
name, for it seems that when the architect was planning out the city, he
arranged that the first stone of the great surrounding wall should be
laid at a particular moment dictated by the astrologers. This moment was
to be made known to the architect by the pulling of a cord extending
from where he was to the place where the astrologers were assembled. The
momentous day arrived, the architect awaited the signal, and suddenly
the cord was shaken, and the stone was laid. But a horrid mistake had
been made. The astrologers had not pulled the cord; a wretched old Crow
had heavily perched upon it, and shaken by his weight, the unlucky
signal was given! From the vexation caused by this incident
[Illustration: HOODED CROW]
the city was called Kahira[5] (the "vexatious" or "unlucky").
Kahira softened, soon became Cairo.
[5] Curzon's _Monasteries of the Levant_.
The Raven, as already stated, is to be seen from time to time, and
especially where the cliffs come down close to the river. It is so
similar to the ordinary Raven that it is only after the feathers of the
head and neck have been worn for some time that the brown look appears
which has given rise to the specific name of the Brown-necked Raven.
Shelley says it nests in date-palm trees, but the only nests I myself
have seen have been in the lofty cliffs of Deir-el-Bahari and Abu Fêada,
and again in some of the ruins of temples, at Karnak for instance. There
is, further, one more Raven, the Abyssinian, which is smaller by some
three inches than the Brown-necked, but it is very similar in all other
respects.
EGYPTIAN TURTLE-DOVE OR PALM DOVE
Turtur senegalensis
General plumage a dull pinky light brown, brighter on head and
breast, which gradually shades off into white under the tail;
wings, warm tones of dull umber brown, which colour also is on the
tail coverts and two central tail feathers; the rest of the tail is
blue-grey with broad white tips, a part of the wing coverts a
bright blue-grey; it has a not very pronounced collar of black and
bright golden brown feathers on the sides and front of neck, eyes
crimson, legs and feet pink. Total length, 11 inches.
The Doves have all had a sort of saintly character thrust on them, which
they hardly deserve, as they are about the most pugnacious of birds,
which is hardly a saintly qualification! It is true a pair of Doves by
themselves, kept in semi-domestication, do show a sort of maudlin
affection, but many of the smaller birds--Wrens, Tits, Warblers, and
Swallows, and many others--all show equal, if not greater true affection
to each other and absolute self-abnegation in their untiring devotion to
their offspring. Why, therefore, the Dove has been peculiarly ticketed
as
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN PALM DOVES]
a model of connubial affection I really do not know, but it has,
and I suppose it will be treated as a sort of sacred symbol to the end
of time.
This particular Egyptian Turtle-dove is also sometimes called the
Palm-dove; a good name, as it is always to be found wherever there are
palm trees; on them it roosts and in their branches it nests. When
flying it opens its tail wide, and then shows the broad white and
lilac-grey of those side feathers which when sitting are all hidden away
under the two central dull brown tail feathers. Its flight through and
among trees is very rapid and tortuous, and it is perhaps when in the
dense clump of palm trees that it is most interesting, as it is so tame
that it allows of a close approach. In any of the palm groves, and palms
are everywhere in Egypt, the bird lover will be able to learn something
of this very Oriental Dove. The first thing he will note is that clearly
some of the many that are flying here and there, and feeding on the
ground around him, are quite young birds, even though it may be December
or January, and it is certain that this true inhabitant of warm sunny
Egypt has two broods at least in the year.
SENEGAL SAND-GROUSE
Pterocles senegallus
Arabic, _Gutta_
Back and general tone of feathers sandy, top of head and breast a
delicate pinkish-lilac, cheeks and throat a strong brilliant
orange-yellow, wings spotted with chocolate-brown markings, legs
feathered, centre of chest and stomach dark dull brown, two centre
tail-feathers elongated, black at points, barred at base. The
female is not nearly so brightly marked, indeed, is mainly
sand-coloured; eyes brown, beak dull grey. Total length, 12 inches.
There are three different varieties of Sand-grouse in Egypt--the Singed,
the Coroneted, and the Senegal. The last has been selected as it is the
one with which I am best acquainted, but either of the others have an
equal claim, since, though occupying different localities, they are to
be met with throughout the area covered by this book. All the
Sand-grouse are very similar in their habits, they are all children of
the desert, but come down, either to feed or to water, to the cultivated
ground at morning and evening. Captain Shelley gives absolute localities
where they might be found (he was writing in 1872), and ever since he
gave
[Illustration: SAND-GROUSE]
that information there has been each winter a regular invasion of
British and other ardent sportsmen, to each of the places named, to have
"a little Sand-grouse shooting." Result: at those places there are now
none whatever, and no one living there seems to know anything more about
Sand-grouse than that annually large numbers of men come with shooting
equipment ready to make record bags, and go away without firing a shot.
This being so, the present author thinks it best not to give localities,
for though there is no danger of Sand-grouse ever being exterminated, as
if persecuted they have the whole of these great African deserts to fall
back and back upon, yet the hunger of the modern man to go out and kill
something bearing the least resemblance to a game-bird is such, that if
it were told that at certain places near the river they could be got, in
a single season or two that place would be absolutely cleared. It seems
rather churlish perhaps, but this book is not written to aid men to
shoot Egyptian birds, but simply to recognise the birds seen; and the
first essential is that there should be birds to see. Sand-grouse seem
to be pleasant sociable birds, happy in their family life; at the
non-breeding season they foregather into large companies, in which
order they fly great distances to and fro to whatever pools or water
they customarily visit each evening, and it is at these places that the
most deadly shooting can take place, for they are very regular in their
"flighting." Captain Tindall Lucas tells me that the Coroneted
Sand-grouse drinks later in the evening and earlier in the morning than
the other forms and practically when all light has gone; the more usual
time being just before the sun sets. The freedom with which they fly is
extraordinary, it is more with the power of the Swallow than any
game-bird; they mount very high up into the air, and go wheeling round
and round, now mounting nearly out of sight, then rushing headlong down
in a long swooping curve till near the earth, when, perhaps, they will
turn off sharp at some angle and go tearing away in some opposite
direction. This is when they are in flocks, and out on the wide open
desert; when coming down to water, or near cultivation, or among the
coarse Halfa grass, they fly with direct intent, and waste no time about
it.
Their cry must be heard to be appreciated; it is usually written as
"gutta, gutta, gutta," but no description of birds' notes ever seems to
be of much value; it is, however, so very individual that once heard
would never be forgotten, and it has, as all Nature's notes have, an
entire suitability to the surroundings, and like the boundless, yellow,
dry, herbless desert it is wild and weird, yet beautiful.
I remember once a quite intelligent Scotch keeper answering an inquiry,
as to what Ptarmigan found to eat amongst the barren hilltops where they
live with the amazing statement, delivered in the most solemn manner,
"that they just lived on the little stones," and when doubt was thrown
on his information, declared that he had often cut them open to see, and
had never found anything in their crops "but just the wee stones." And
the inquiry might well be made as to the source of food of the
Sand-grouse when one sees a large flock in the desert places that they
love to be in during the day, if one did not know of their wondrous
powers of flight, which make nothing of flying scores of miles to the
far-distant edges of cultivated ground.
I have watched Sand-grouse quite close at hand, and when on the ground
they are rather dumpy-shaped and uninteresting; if disturbed, they pull
themselves together a bit and run off to a short distance, and settle
down again in a crouching position; if again disturbed they probably
rise altogether, with their "gutta, gutta" cry and fly miles away. In
running they go like clockwork mice; you hardly see their legs or feet,
and they rise and fall over the varying contours of the ground just like
a little running wave.
From Alexandria to Assoan and beyond right to the Soudan, Sand-grouse
are to be met with, and though every one may not see this typical desert
bird, it is there if only they know where to look for it.
SAND PARTRIDGE
Ammoperdix heyi
The colour of the upper plumage on body is so delicate in quality
that it is hard to say if it should be called a lilac grey or pinky
grey, whilst in certain lights it might be called a sandy brown;
the head is, with the cheeks, neck, and breast, a pearly pink; the
flanks are barred with rich chestnut and black on a warm white
breast; white on the ear coverts and a white spot in front of the
eye in the variety known as Cholmondely; legs yellow; eyes brown;
beak a brilliant orange. The hen bird is without the bright
chestnut bars on the flanks, and is altogether a paler-coloured
greyish-buff, and without white on the face. Total length, 9
inches.
This is a resident Egyptian bird, and I include it in my list because,
though the traveller up the Nile may not see it, any who go across the
desert around the Pyramid district, and even those who journey only a
little out of Assoan, ought quite certainly to come across it. It is a
most charming, lively little bird, bustling about; you rarely see it
quiet for long, even in January it still keeps in coveys, and they go
running along in and out of the boulders, and, if on a hillside, they
are very quick and agile in hopping high up on to the rocks above them.
They very seldom fly if they can possibly get out of your way by
running. I very well remember seeing them on the old-time road from
Kennah to Kosseir on the Red Sea. I saw them first before reaching Wady
Hammamat, and then more frequently as we passed through the ancient
quarries. They seem to use this old roadway as their regular
feeding-ground, for there, owing to the passage of caravans backwards
and forwards, they find a perpetual source of food from the frequent
droppings. Their movements were so quick and their little bodies so
round and plump that, even with my glass on them, I could not settle the
colour of their legs, till I got a closer inspection of those in the
Cairo Zoological Gardens. As they run they utter a little cheery sort of
"cheep, cheep" call, and the whole party seem always happy, if not in
boisterous spirits, which, when one considers the hardness of their life
in these sterile wastes, seems somewhat remarkable. Grain and seeds are
their staple food, but I distinctly saw one once and again make a dart
at some passing insect, and no doubt here, as at home, they love the
ants' eggs that must exist, as ants are ever present with you in this
hot desert country. As far as my own notes go, I do not think they ever
come down even to the outskirts
[Illustration: HEY'S SAND-PARTRIDGE]
of the cultivation, but keep exclusively to the sand (possibly in
spring or summer they may approach nearer to the haunts of man, but I
have no evidence), which makes the fact of their being, as it is alleged
they are, exceedingly good eating, very remarkable, for one would be
disposed to think they would be thin, tough, and tasteless. I have it on
good authority, that as a game-bird for the table, they are far to be
preferred to our own Partridge, being, though small, very plump and of a
fine game flavour. All Partridges seem peculiar in doing well on very
little--at home one often wonders during a hard winter at their
surviving at all--for they are never fed like the pampered Pheasants,
and not only do they survive, but they seem to carry as much flesh when
shot in a hard winter as they do in September when grain lies scattered
in profusion on every stubble. Although one has praised its seeming
happy way of living, no account of this bird would be complete without
some notice of its extraordinary pugnacity. This is confined admittedly
to the males, but with them it is, as with all so-called game-birds, a
ruling passion, of which our game-cocks are of course well-known
examples; but it may not be so generally known that in many
countries--Greece, amongst others--Partridges are kept for this special
purpose of fighting for the delectation of their owners, and though I am
not aware of this little sportsman, the Sand Partridge, having been kept
for this purpose, I am sure if it was it would not disgrace the
traditions of its family, for a more pugnacious little bird than it
never walked. The males have a peculiar habit of standing ever and anon
quite upright puffing out all their breast feathers, so that they
display all the beauty of their rich chestnut and black-barred plumage.
The naturalists have discovered that in certain districts the birds all
have a white spot over the beak on the forehead, and to this variety is
given the name of Cholmondely's Sand Partridge, whilst the other type,
with only one white spot behind the eye on the cheeks, is known as Hey's
Sand Partridge. Here, as in the case of most birds, the description of
the plumage is taken from the male bird, the female nearly always being
very much more sober coloured. This cannot too often be repeated, as not
recognizing this fact often leads to mistake; and again, in the matter
of the measurements of the birds, the size given is that of the average
bird, for in almost all birds you get larger or smaller individuals, and
that veteran naturalist Wallace has just lately drawn attention to the
quite extraordinary variations in the different parts of the Common
Redwing, showing that even in twenty birds the dimensions varied
considerably.
THE QUAIL
Coturnix communis
Arabic, _Salwa_
Plumage--Upper parts brown marked with grey, rufous, and black, a
buff line over eye and on crown of head, a semicircular collar of
dark brown on throat; lower parts lighter, streaked with black down
centre of feathers, beak brown, legs pale warm brown, eyes hazel.
Total length, 7·5 inches.
The call of the male Quail is one of those strange sounds that have
around it much of the halo that the song of the Cuckoo has at home,
because it marks a definite date--the passing of winter and the coming
of summer. For the ordinary traveller this call, which by some has been
rendered as sounding like "What we whee," is all that he will ever know
of the bird's presence, as it is curiously skulking in habits, and never
rises unless suddenly alarmed by one's walking through the cover in
which it hides. Personally I agree with a friend who said the sound was
identical with the sort of cheeping call of a young turkey poult, but
all descriptions of birds' songs I hold to be rather vain. Each one for
himself
[Illustration: QUAIL
Flying over growing corn.]
must notice and learn from actual experience, and the various
calls and notes are so individual that when once really noted are never
forgotten, and to at all a good ear these aids to identification are as
sure as if the very bird were placed in his hands. Quail pass through
Egypt when on their way to their more northerly breeding quarters early
in March and April. Some few may remain the year through, but they are a
small minority. The return to Egypt is from September to November, and
it is during these journeyings that the vast quantities are caught in
nets, which later are sent to every European city for the tables of the
rich. Mr. C. D. Burnett-Stuart very kindly has given me the following
notes:--
"From Alexandria to Port Said the whole length of coast is practically
hung with nets; but Government lately has forbidden the placing of the
nets on the actual foreshore which it controls, which were the most
killing positions, and the nets can now only be placed farther back on
private and cultivated ground. The numbers of Quail which must migrate
passes belief, for it is recorded that in Coronation Year five million
were ordered and supplied for the English market alone."
"The route which they take leaving Egypt seems to be roughly the great
valley of the Nile right to its entrances to the Mediterranean; but on
the return journey from Europe they seem to reach the shores of Egypt,
then turn eastwards and follow the line of the Suez Canal and Red Sea to
about Kosseir and the old river-bed, then across the desert to the Nile,
and away spreading themselves over the heart of Africa."
"On their arrival in Egypt they are so dog-tired that they can sometimes
be caught by hand, and have been actually so caught in houses that they
have entered in a sort of dazed condition. The poor Quail are also
caught in large numbers by a drop-net whilst on passage down the river,
in clover, or any other suitable crop, the fowler calling them up to his
net by a reed whistle. Quail shooting used to be a more favourite sport
than it is now since Denshawie days, and two guns have on one occasion
obtained 252 birds in the day at Ayat, fifty miles south of Cairo."
After this one is not disposed to say "liar" even to the ancient
historian who recorded the sinking of certain vessels in the ocean,
because of the innumerable Quail that settled on them; and one readily
accepts the story of the Israelites' camp being covered all over two
cubits high by falling Quails. Canon Tristam has a note on this
incident and "the fully satisfied hungry people," that the very "Hebrew
name _selav_, in its Arabic form _salwa_, signifies fat, very
descriptive of the round plump form and fat flesh of the Quail."
Ten is said to be the average of the clutch of eggs laid, which number
partly explains the enormous flocks which come year after year in spite
of the incessant raids made upon them. If by chance you do see Quails
rise from the crops you are instantly reminded of partridges; but they
never rise as high as the latter birds, and though I have heard of their
answering to being "driven," I should think they give very
unsatisfactory shooting, as they are rarely more than a foot or two
above the crops, whether they be clover or young corn.
CREAM-COLOURED COURSER
Cursorius gallicus
General plumage a bright clear yellowish sand colour; forehead a
bright burnt sienna; crown of head a light lilac-grey; eyebrows
white; eyes brown; legs white. Length, 10 inches.
This is one of the birds commonly selected as an illustration of
"protective coloration." It lives in the sandy deserts, and its plumage
displays a curiously harmonious blending of the various colours to be
found on the dry, stony, sandy soil. The very markedly contrasting
colours of the head are just the very same that you see in the pebbles
or stones, and the smoother passages of delicate buff and greyish-yellow
are the counterpart of the curving slopes of pure sand; whilst even the
startling enamel-like white of the legs resembles the bleached, hard,
dry stalks of the desert vegetation. When the bird crouches down it is
practically invisible, though, as the phrase is, it may be "right under
your nose," but as a matter of fact it seems most often to perversely
upset the whole value of what we men deem its valuable
[Illustration: CREAM-COLOURED COURSER]
protective asset by running about, and drawing attention to itself
by continually uttering its peculiar cry. And when it rises and flies
off, as it frequently does, in little bands or parties, all utter the
same note with incessant, noisy reiteration. I first saw this bird when
riding across the desert towards Kosseir on the Red Sea, and I well
remember my surprise at seeing how completely different was the position
assumed by the birds to that which all the pictures with which I was
familiar had led me to expect. It runs about very high on the legs, and
every other moment lifts its body up nearly perpendicularly, looking
sharply round right and left before again making another quick little
run in search of some speck of food. It struck me as being a peculiarly
cheery little bird, and seemed to be of a sociable nature, always being
in little parties, and often when they all rose together they would be
quickly joined by some others, who had been before out of sight, and
together they would go wheeling about in mid-air, mounting high up into
the sky, till the eye unaided lost sight of them, but all the time their
whereabouts was certain, because of their most musical, reiterated cry,
which somewhat resembles that of the Sand Grouse.
It loves the deserts, and as far as I know never leaves them save to
come down, as the Sand-grouse do, to some water-hole. Round the
Pyramids, and even within sight of the babel of guides and donkey boys,
this child of the desert may be seen, but it always keeps, as it were,
in touch with the boundless open sandy tracts to which it can beat a
safe retreat. In one of the large show-cases in the great Central Hall
of the British Museum of Natural History, they are shown in a group with
other desert birds and beasts, but it is sad to see how the colours of
their plumage get--even with all the care of dust-proof cases--dull,
faded and dingy, giving little idea of the brilliantly clear, delicately
coloured plumage of the living bird, as seen under the clear blue of an
Egyptian sky.
THE GREEN PLOVER OR LAPWING
Vanellus cristatus