100 Mr. W. T. H. Chambers's Month in Tripoli. 



fields then present. Upupa epops and Motacilla alba are also 

 common ; the former, by its frequently uttered call-note, ap- 

 peared to be breeding. 



At last the arrival of the camels from the country enabled us 

 to make a start. Our party consisted of Mr. Warrington and 

 myself, on horseback, with a cook, groom, and two camel- 

 drivers. The camels carried our tents and baggage; and a 

 stout jackass, with a pair of capacious panniers, served also to 

 mount the cook. Besides my double-barrel and a rifle, I car- 

 ried an "elevator" gun; and I cannot speak too highly of its 

 utility for travelling on horseback. 



The first day we journeyed eastward through narrow lanes 

 among groves of palms, intermixed with fig-, olive-, carob-, 

 orange-, and mulberry-trees, which afford a temporary resting- 

 place to the migratory birds, for whose passage, however, I was 

 unfortunately too early. These palm-groves terminate in a series 

 of salt-lakes, at the edge of which we encamped for the first 

 night ; and as I set off with my gun through marshes overgrown 

 with rushes the spot seemed to realize one's beau ideal of 

 "happy hunting-grounds," especially as I had heard of the 

 large bags of wildfowl "made by Tripolitan sportsmen. I saw 

 nothing, however, but a few Snipe and a flock of Plover, and 

 in the far distance the snowy white plumage of a pair of 

 Flamingos. 



The nextday, skirting the Tajoura lakes, we entered the desert, 

 following a track close to the sea. Here Aluuda cristata was 

 very common, and I once or twice distinguished an Ammomanes, 

 probably A. deserti ; Corvus corax and what appeared to be a 

 Hen-Harrier passed by out of range. I shot a fine male speci- 

 men of Lanius dealbatus, the stomach of which contained the 

 remains of a large desert-beetle. We crossed several deep 

 gullies or " wadys, " at the bottom of which were usually small 

 streams, supporting a luxuriant vegetation on either side. I shot 

 ^gialites minor, but feathered inhabitants were very scarce. 



After three days in the desert we began to ascend towards the 

 liills ; and patches of cultivation appeared here and there, while 

 Quails and Wheatears [Saxicola cenanthe) suddenly became 

 numerous. Finding a pleasant shady spot among the hills, I 



