56 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



Professor Newton. The name alaudipcs for the Bifasciated 

 or curve-billed Lark, takes precedence I presume of C. 

 dcsertorum, Stanley, being twenty-four years older ; and in 

 that case five of Des Fontaines' specific names would be 

 adopted. 



Often in my rambles I intruded on the haunts of the 

 cunning Cratcropus fulvns, a bird first made known to 

 science by Des Fontaines. It is exactly the colour of sand, 

 like so many other birds in these arid regions.* 



The venerable Kadi Bouhanimed, who was chief of Mellika 

 in Dr. Tristram's time, is doubtless gathered to his fathers ; 

 the present man is Salki Benadulla. Barbaaisa Bembamen 

 is Kadi of Bou-Noura, and Adown of Benisguen. All 

 these towns are in the same oasis, and the dry course of the 

 Wed N'ca winds between them. Bou-Noura is a heap of 

 ruins ; half the town has been dismantled, and the crumbling, 

 unroofed, long-deserted houses have grown brown like the 

 rocks which surround them. El Ateuf and Benisguen are 

 in better preservation, and contain some shops or magazines, 

 the principal wares, says Canon Tristram, " being leather, 

 dyed cloths, and all sorts of materials for tanning and dye- 

 ing." Benisguen has long been the rival of Gardaia, and 

 that its inhabitants still aspire to the chieftainship of the 

 oasis was proved by a new wall which we found them con- 

 structing, and which affords an instance of the intestine 

 rivalry which has rendered every stand against the French 

 abortive. The day is far distant when the burnous will 

 vanquish the tricolor flag. 



We did not start upon our return journey until the last 

 day of the month. Then bidding a hearty farewell to the 

 Sheiks, and giving them at their request a certificate of our 



* I should think the species observed by Mr. W. T. H. Chambers in 

 Tripoli (Ibis, 1867, pp. loi and 104) is more likely to have been this 

 species than C acacice. 



