24 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



their best) are to be had for 3,000 francs ; any higher price that 

 may be paid is money thrown away. Very fair horses may be 

 hired at' ^^5 per month, the hvery-stableman keeping them and 

 providing saddles and bridles. Good servants are very difficult to 

 obtain, especially for short periods. A thorough good cook earns 

 nearly at the rate of ^^30 per annum. 



W. P. B. (Algiers, April 9th, 1873.) 



" For a sportsman Algiers, or rather its vicinity, affords excellent 

 shooting ; Snipe and Duck, golden and grey [?] Plover, being the 

 principal winter game ; and in spring great quantity of Quail can 

 be got. I remember killing ten brace of Quail in a few hours. 



"Within two days' journey of Algiers there is a large lake called 

 Lac Alloula, where capital sport can be had. It is covered with 

 wild duck in the winter with a good supply of geese and wild 

 swans, and the margin of the lake is full of Snipe — a friend and 

 myself killing forty couple of Snipe and several Bittern in a few 

 hours. * '■'' * "' ^ * 



Waverley. (Oct. 21st, 1872.) 



For a graphic account of this lake, and the ornithological 

 treasures to be had there, see the " Ibis" for i860, p. 149. 



I procured from Madame Loche (the widow of the dis- 

 tinguished ornithologist) a Golden Eagle (Aquila cJirysaetos), 

 which had been killed at Arba, twenty miles distant from 

 Algiers, about three months before. I also saw another 

 alive. Captain Loche had several, but they, with other 

 Accipitres to the number of 180, perished in the following 

 manner. An earthquake occasioned the fall of an immense 

 wall, beneath which was the " fauconnerie," and alas ! it 

 buried in its debris the precious birds which it had taken the 

 Captain ten years to collect. 



The adventures I had in getting a " permis de chasse " 

 were quite as amazing as Canon Tristram's. It did not cost 

 so much as an English game license, but the number of 

 officials whose signatures were necessary was something 



