The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-11
BIRDS AND BEASTS OF EGYPT
And Also Incidental Mention of the
Finny Inhabitants of Old Nile.
The Big Cattle Kings of Ancient Times. Their
Vast Farms and Huge Herds, and How
They Hunted Wild Beasts.

NAPLES, Italy, Sept. Z0.-W nan WISHING Ine
home of the most ancient civilization ON the
banks of the Nile. I saw other things besides
ruins. In Egypt was especially interested in
tie birds OF various kinds. The animal king
dom is not badly represented, whether we con-
slider the "biros, fonr-footed beasts and creep
ing things" or whether we consider either the do
mestic or wild varieties of camels, horses, little
donkeys buffalos mot bisons, but the black, ugly.
lop-eared East Indian water ox-the genuine buff
fao of the old world domestic bovines. goats and
fat-tailed sheep, there are millions. CT wild
animals there is certainly greater variety than
would have imagined would be found in so
small an area as cultivable Egypt Do not think
/ mean t. say that these wild animals are to be
found only on the cultivated lands of the Nile
valley, or the GASES of the Lybian desert west of
the Nile-but they must get their living some
how or other, off the tillable country. For in
stance. the total cultivated land in upper and
lower Egypt is IL, 342 square miles-about one
third of Indiana-and yet in the neighborhood OF
these green fields of rice, sugar-cane, cotton,
wheat tobacco and Indian corn, and in sight of
the magnificent groves Of date palms, are found
many wild animals that, whether their food be
animal or vegetable. must except in rare cases,
come down rocky heights, or from desert sands
to get their subsistence. There is the
'Ibex beden." or, as it is sometimes called, the
arabian mountain goat, which has its habitat in
mountains between the Nile and the Red sea.
1t finds some food growing in the clefts of the
rocks. and it does not always need to descend to
the cultivated fields. Then, again, is the
''maned sheep" lows tragelaphus) which inhab
its the mountains of the rocky hills near Minyeh
and the Fayoume. / have never seen this
Arabian mountain goat or the named sheep ex-
cept in the collection Of the Khedive at Cairo;
but English and German hunters delight
in nothing more than in tenting out
amongst the mountains and rocky hills to get
crack at these wild fellows. More abundant, and
more getatable, are no less than four different
kinds of antelopes or gazelles, the most numer-
GUS of which is the Dorcas gazelle ANTELOPE
dorcasl. Wild hares were formerly met with
quite often, but they are now only rarely found
in the Delta and the Fayoume. The lynx,
small-footed wild cat (felis maniculata), the
Egyptian wolf tcanis variegatisl. and the
iehneumon, also make fine sport for those who
like to roam over hot sands, or climb the white
limestone mountains of Lower Egypt. Foxes
jackals, hyenas and genets are often met with
have seen several of these in their wild state
skulking amidst the ruins, or stealthily cringing
to the ground so as to creep on, unobserved, away
from the sight of man. The fox, the jackal and
the hyena haunt all Egyptian quarries, climb into
the crevices of the cliffs, hide amidst ruined
temples and tombs, and some Of these love to
scavenger amidst the piles of rubbish in the
neighborhood of dirty Arabian towns and
villages. The hyena hides himself in the day
time, but comes out of his lair at night and
scours the habitable country to gorge himself on
carrion, or to pounce upon disabled domestic
animals. There is a curious kind of fox-a long
cared fellow, called the 'fennec," which has
both carniverous and legumimous teeth
and digesting apparatus. for he subsists partly
on vegetable as well as animal food He is diff
ferent from the most of his tribe for he lives
gregariousy in extensive burrows which he ex-
cavates in the sands of the desert.
But to me far more interesting are the birds
of Egypt, whether those that live there all the
year round, or those that merely winter there or
the migratory birds of passage, like the stork
and the 'coturnix communis vulgarly known in
America as the "Messina quail" which latter, in
spring and autumn. fly from Africa to Sicily,
and thence to the main land of Italy. They
the same which the children of Israel in the des-
crt fed upon. Where do these quails come from?
They are strangers to Egypt as they are to Italy.
They come from the south, from the Soudan, or
he neighborhood of the great African lakes, into
the valley of the Nile. But this have noticed:
They appear in both Egypt and Italy at the time
of wheat harvest; that is. early April in Egypt,
and three to four weeks later in Sicily, or the
peninsular portion of southern Italy. Our dear
old friend, the swallow-of all varieties known
in the north-is here in Egypt He is like the
delicate invalid scons Of aristocracy (who can
afford it, sojourner in sunny lands. The elder
AgassiZ used 20 say that the secret of the ap-
pearance of the shad in different lattitudes sue
cessively was that the shad went northward
with the spring If the spring in Florida begun
with January, there the shad appeared; in March
and April he would be found in the Potomac,
and in May he went up the Connecticut. So
with the swallow He hovers in January land
wintere over the wheat fields of the Nile, or
chases insects amidst the ruins Of Thebes, Lux
and Karnak. have seen him skirmish
ing over the public squares and gardens
in Cairo in February and March, and in
April and May have watched him buildingan-
der the caves of churches, converts and barns in
Italy. He goes with warm weather. In March.
1876, as l left Port Said for Palestine, saw
flock of storks sailing northward. In April, in
company with my brothers, Calvin and Slough
ton storks on the coast of Asia Minor, in
the marshes of Alexandretta. In the last part
of June of the same year was coming down the
Marinoa railway from Pisa to Civita Vecchia
and there we're my old migratory friends, the
storks, wading amidst the tall marsh grass and
gobbling up the frogs with greater aiacrity than
a French bon vivant. From Lake Nyanza they
had made their long voyage. with many rests.
Eating snails, snakes and frogs in Abyssinia;
sampling the same at Khartoum and in ali Up
per and Lower Egypt; pausing along the shores
of Asia Minor until warmer weather should de-
velop, or draw out, their hyberEating food in
raising their young on the tops of chimneys and
steeples in Basic, in Nuremberg, in Utrecht.
Amsterdam and Copenhagen. At given time
the stork retraces his flight, when summer has
left the North, and he follows it back to Central
Africa.
OF birds not migratory there are about 26l