32 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



commonest bird at Bougzoul was the English Skylark, next 

 to that the Calandra, and then Reboud's Lark (Calendrella 

 minor, Cab. ; C. reboiidia, Tristram). The Skylarks were 

 still in flocks, but the Calandras had paired. 



February nth. Went a twelve-mile drive in the broiling 

 sun with the keeper of the caravanserai. At some Arab 

 tents we were entertained with coffee, hot bread, and Msab 

 dates, in return for which we gave our hosts as much powder 

 and shot as we could spare. Coming home wc saw eight 

 Cranes (Grns cinerca) marching abreast across the plain in 

 the grey twilight. We guided the cart nearly to within 

 gunshot, when they all ran together with their heads up, 

 and without uttering any call, slowly sailed away, to seek 

 safer quarters in the adjoining marsh. There is just enough 

 traffic to mark a road over the desert to Ain-oussera, a 

 lonely caravanserai with a muddy stream winding before the 

 entrance. Nothing but a scanty herbage clothes the plain, 

 a coarse kind of grass, to the height of two or three feet, 

 (different from u^hat grows in the zveds) forming a bleak 

 retreat for the Desert Wheatear, the Dotterel, and the 

 Tawny Pipit. Well may Dr. Tristram term this place "a 

 genuine piece of desert." In front, behind, and on either 

 side stretches the vast Sahara. Sometimes level, often un- 

 dulating, like a great sea of sand it stretches away. In 

 some places the soil is soft and sandy (where it is red it is 

 very soft), in some, hard and pebbly; but the herbage is 

 everywhere reduced to a minimum. Every chott and 

 SebkJira* is coated with a saline incrustation, and the tan- 

 talising mirage leads the traveller to suppose that he has 

 in view a magnificent lake. Seen from afar the resemblance 

 is perfect, but as he draws near, the mists are dissipated, and 

 the lake resolves itself into bushes, rocks, or even camels. 



As the setting sun sheds its glare over this treeless plain of 



** Salt lakes of more or less extent. 



