THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 45 



I saw Ravens, Kestrels, Pigeons, Turtle Doves, and Hoo- 

 poes, and other birds which I did not know, but we were 

 pressed for time and could not collect many. I shot one small 

 bird not unlike a VVhitethroat, which I have no doubt was a 

 Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata) . Canon Tristram 

 calls it " the common and characteristic Warbler of the 

 whole Sahara" (Ibis I., p. 417) ; but I only shot one other, 

 and that was a female at Laghouat. Nearly every Terebinth 

 of any size carried several nests, and the ground beneath 

 them was white with the droppings of birds. As we rode 

 along, the Desert Horned Lark (Otocorys bilopJia) ran before 

 us, and twice I saw a benighted Wryneck crouching on the 

 plain. Here was indeed a glorious country for a collector. 

 I kept a look out for Ostriches, but never had the good 

 fortune to see any. " The capture of the Ostrich," says 

 Dr. Tristram, "is the greatest feat of hunting to which the 

 Sahara sportsman aspires : and in richness of booty, it ranks 

 next to the plunder of a caravan." To this I may add, that 

 the feathers and the eggs are so highly prized, that they are 

 worth more at Laghouat than in London. " A skin in full 

 plumage is worth on the spot from 40 to lOO Spanish 

 dollars," i.e. £22. Step by step civilization is driving this 

 brevipennate southwards. Like the Garefowl of Geir fugla 

 drangr (Alca inipcnnis), its ancient haunts know it no 

 longer ; like that flightless bird, its appearance, its actual 

 name will be forgotten, and in process of time its existence 

 will become a matter of tradition to be talked about 

 over the camp fire with the Roc and other legendary 

 birds. So surely as the advancing hunter substitutes his 

 express rifle for the firelock of the Arab will the Ostrich 

 forsake the desert's fringe and seek an asylum far beyond 

 the country of dates. Does not its impending extinction 

 in the country I passed over typify the decay of the Nomad 

 in the Northern Sahara .-" 



About noon on the second day we came to water, the 



