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clioly notes of the " Mnka" {CertJi/lauda), the guttural call of the Cream-coloured 

 Cursor, or the lively little song of the sand-coloured little Sijhia nana deserti. 



Nearly all the way from Touggourt to El Oiied the traveller passes through 

 a sea of t^and-duiies (PI. XXIII., bottom), and there are only a few wells, after 

 a short day's march, near the Bordjs or rest-houses, which are strong stone 

 buildings with adjoining stables and surrounded by a stone wall. They contain 

 a few tables and rough seats, and may be used by travellers. We took advantage 

 of them all the way from Touggourt to El Oued, where they are quite clean and 

 not as cold as farther northwards. 



Near Bordj Ferjau the bushes of E/ihedra ehita became higher, some showing 

 thick stems, and creeping along the ground like the "Kuieholz" in the Alps. 

 The place of the halfa of the north (.SWyy« tenaci^.vma) is here entirely taken by 

 the "drin" (Aristida jjunijens) and Aristidajfoccom. Here and there some curious 

 bushes without leaves arrest our attention : Retama ntetam, and Calligonum 

 comosum. Although attaining a height of two metres or so, and Retama some- 

 times even more, all have a curious weatherbeaten, meagre appearance. In these 

 bushes the rare Passer simplex was seen, which here builds its nest in clefts 

 and holes of the stems of such bushes, or in low palm-trees, but elsewhere also 

 in the stone walls of wells. 



El Oued, the chief oasis of the " Souf," was reached on April 7. It is 

 perhaps the strangest oasis in the Sahara (Pis. XXII. and XXIIL, top). The 

 palms are not watered by little ditches, as they are in all the oases on the edge 

 of the desert — the entire Oued Il'hir from Oiirir to Touggourt, at Laghouat, 

 Berryan and Ghardaia, and, we believe, in most places — but take their water from 

 natural subterranean rivers or reservoirs, or maybe only moist soil. They are 

 therefore only planted in the deepest depressions between the dnnes, and it is 

 wonderful to think how the Arabs found these places ont. These palm-gardens 

 are constantly filled up with sand, sandstorms being frequent, and, it is said, blowing 

 two hundred days in the year. Men, women, and children are therefore constantly 

 carrying baskets fnll of sand out of the gardens, in order to keep them clear. 

 Nothing grows under the palms, except a few onions, broad beans, and other 

 vegetables loved by the Arabs ; no weeds are seen. The houses of the town 

 (PI. XXIV.) are also most peculiar, each house and generally each single room 

 having a round domed roof of plaster, made of the pounded gypsum which occurs 

 in extensive layers under the loose sand of the surface, separating, as it were, 

 the latter from the damp lower formation. The walls of the buildings consist 

 of the same material mixed with more sand and mud ; but even mud is rare, and 

 wood hardly e.xists, as no palm-tree is sacrificed for its wood ! The dates of 

 El Oued, and indeed of the whole of the '' Souf" or "Oued Souf," as the district 

 is called, are among the best in the world, and in delicacy surpass even those of 

 Touggourt and Wargla. 



Our time in El Oued was almost lost, as a heavy sandstorm was blowing 

 three days and two nights. With difficulty did we enter some of the jjalm- 

 gardens and collected Sparrows, which are plentiful, and Palm-doves, which 

 ajjpeared to be the only resident birds, and shot some migrants in a garden of 

 the town, among them the first Ji/nx torquUla mauretanica and a large dark 

 North European Caprimiili/iis europaens europueus. Other birds noticed, and 

 mostly secured, were Fhoenicurus phoenicuras phoenicurus, Pk'/lloscopus sibi/atrtx 

 and colli/l/ita, Oenanthe oe,nanthc and hispanica, Anthus tricialis, I'pitpa epops, 



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