locust-bird, becafico, and humming-bird are rare; the remainder are all
tolerably common. Besides these, we know that in ancient times ostriches
wore found within the limits of the Empire, though now they have
retreated further south into the Great Desert of Arabia. Perhaps
bitterns may also formerly have frequented some of the countries
belonging to it, though they are not mentioned among the birds of the
region by modern writers.

There is a bird of the heron species, or rather of a species between
the heron and the stork, which seems to deserve a few words of special
description. It is found chiefly in Northern Syria, in the plain of
Aleppo and the districts watered by the Koweik and Sajur rivers. The
Arabs call it Tair-el-Raouf, or "the magnificent." This bird is of a
grayish-white, the breast white, the joints of the wings tipped with
scarlet, and the under part of the beak scarlet, the upper part being of
a blackish-gray. The beak is nearly five inches long, and two thirds of
an inch thick. The circumference of the eye is red; the feet are of a
deep yellow; and the bird in its general form strongly resembles the
stork; but its color is darker. It is four feet high, and covers a
breadth of nine feet when the wings are spread. The birds of this
species are wont to collect in large flocks on the North Syrian rivers,
and to arrange themselves in several rows across the streams where they
are shallowest. Here they squat side by side, as close to one another as
possible, and spread out their tails against the current, thus forming a
temporary dam. The water drains off below them, and when it has reached
its lowest point, at a signal from one of their number who from the bank
watches the proceedings, they rise and swoop upon the fish, frogs, etc.,
which the lowering of the water has exposed to view.

Fish are abundant in the Chaldaean marshes, and in almost all the