58 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



shores of France and Albion's white cHffs are the migrants' 

 goal. Like a great tidal wave they press on, dropping I 

 suspect a few laggards here and there, who, tempted by the 

 water and rich foliage, remain and rear their progeny in 

 these glorious Dayats. 



This is the country to which the Arabs apply the term 

 " Sahara^ I know it is the Great Desert which is so 

 marked in maps, but this is the true " Sahara " — the habit- 

 able country which ends where all regular supply of water 

 fails. Of course I worked hard with note-book and scalpel. 

 Inter alia I procured examples of the Orphean and Subal- 

 pine Warblers, Abyssinian Crested Lark, and Short-toed 

 Lark. Canon Tristram and Mr. Salvin did not meet with 

 the Subalpine Warbler, but M. Taczanouski seems to have 

 encountered it freely in Constantino. Loche in his catalogue 

 (p. 69) gives as its habitat — " Le cercle de Milianeh ; " but 

 it appears not to be included in Germain's " Birds of Miliana," 

 a catalogue comprising 162 species. It is an elegant little 

 species. A cock and hen, shot at Bou-Noura on the 25th of 

 April, were in perfect plumage. 



Mr. Dresser unites Galerida Abyssinica (Bp.) the Abyssin- 

 ian Crested Lark, with G. c r is tata (Birds of Europe, Part XX.), 

 but I am sure that my bird is not the same as the common 

 Crested Larks I shot in the " Tell." I noticed the difference 

 directly I shot it ; it is a much lighter bird, with a longer 

 beak. Possibly it may be G. arenicola (Trist), but it signi- 

 fies little, as Mr. Dresser with a sweeping hand has united 

 them both with G. cristata. Matters are not helped by a 

 discrepancy between Canon Tristram's account of G. arenicola 

 and M. Taczanouski's. The former says, " This bird may be 

 at once distinguished from its congeners by its bill, which is 

 extremely elongated" (Ibis, 1859, p. 426); but the latter 

 remarks — " Like the preceding species (G. cristata), this one 

 is short-beaked" (Zoologist, 2582). 



My Short-toed Lark, Calcndrella bracJiydactyla (LeisL), 



