. Egyptian birds : for the most part seen in the Nile Valley . and across chest; wing and sides of backa very beautiful pale lilac blue-grev, under-parts white, lowerthroat and Hanks a creamy rufous, legs bluish, eye length, 8*5 inches. This is regarded as quite certainly the bird knownin ancient days as tlie Crocodile Bird. It waslield to be the faithful attendant of this fear-some reptile, warning it of danger: and when thecreature it fed was full, this little bird was supposedto attend to the proper cleaning of the ogres teeth IFor tliis purpose, we are told, the crocodile would
. Egyptian birds : for the most part seen in the Nile Valley . and across chest; wing and sides of backa very beautiful pale lilac blue-grev, under-parts white, lowerthroat and Hanks a creamy rufous, legs bluish, eye length, 8*5 inches. This is regarded as quite certainly the bird knownin ancient days as tlie Crocodile Bird. It waslield to be the faithful attendant of this fear-some reptile, warning it of danger: and when thecreature it fed was full, this little bird was supposedto attend to the proper cleaning of the ogres teeth IFor tliis purpose, we are told, the crocodile wouldlie quietly with its great mouth wide open whilstthis brave little dentist ran about briskly rightinto the open jaws and deftly removed noisomeleech or scrap of food left between those uglyfangs, and never showing the slightest fear. It isa pretty story, but as there are now no crocodilesin Egypt proper, the ordinary traveller has nochance of seeing if this be so or no. But thoughthe crocodiles are gone the Black-headed Plover is 116 BLACK-HEADED PLOVER .^/. BLACK-HEADED PLOVER 117 still to be seen by those going up or down bywater. INlr. E. Cavendish Taylor, writing in 1867,says, This bird is abundant all along the Nileabove Cairo, wherever the banks of the river aremuddy. Captain Shelley in 1870, referring to it,says, It is plentifully distributed throughoutEgypt and Nubia, but it is most abundant inUpper Egypt between Siool and Thebes. Imyself saw it many times in 1875, whilst going upand returning, in good quiet-fashioned way, bydahabeah ; but when I again went over the sameground in 1908, although going very slowly andstopping every day, I only find, fiom my notebook,that we saw it three or four times in our six weeksjourney from Thebes to Cairo. All that we sawwere wild and anything but the confiding birds onehas been taught to regard them. I think by farthe most notable thing about this bird is its curioushabit of laying its eggs on the sand, and then care-fully burying
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidegyptianbirdsfor00whymuof
