THE ALGERIAN SAHARA, 49 



Arabs rush up to it to cut its throat before it dies, and I 

 soon found out that they would never cook any which did 

 not die by the knife. Of course they ruin everything for 

 stuffing. A splendid Golden Eagle, which Dr. Tristram 

 shot, was served in this way. The natives do not shoot the 

 Doves, simply because they do not think them worth 

 powder, which the French traders are not allowed to sell 

 them under any pretence. They come among the houses 

 and peck and walk about the tents exactly like tame 

 pigeons. They were not then paired. Neither were the lovely 

 Bee-eaters ( Merops apiastcr), many of which I saw irradia- 

 ting the landscape by their beautiful colours. In their 

 buo}'ant and graceful flight, Bee-eaters are not unlike 

 Martins. Few birds surpass them in beauty as they glide 

 nearly motionless through the air (except when a momen- 

 tary rapid beating of the wings is necessary to gather 

 impetus). Like a meteor they glitter in the sunlight for a 

 moment and are gone. 



Berryan is a town of some 400 houses, surrounded by a 

 mud-brick wall with a good many small towers. They are 

 pierced for musketry, and have been used on various 

 occasions for defence against the Chamba. The wall is 

 surmounted by a fence of thorns, which serves as a favourite 

 perch for the Pallid Shrike (Laniiis lahtora, Sykes ; L. 

 pallens, Cass. ; L. dealbatus, De Filippi). Messrs. Sharpe 

 and Dresser say they have never seen nestlings of this 

 species. I got one on the 25th of April just able to fly. 

 All the upper surface, which is grey in the adult, is ashy 

 brown, faintly barred, the lore and ear-covets are very faint, 

 as well as the other parts which are black in an adult, but 

 the breast and underparts are the same, the beak in my 

 skin is yellow. 



The loftiest building in the town is the Mosque ; its tower 

 is in the shape of an obelisk ; but what interested me most 

 was the wells. In my paper read on my return to the 



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