153 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the 



much alarm for their safety, as a few days previous, on the 

 women going in the early morning for water, they had met two 

 leopards in the path, since which neither they nor the children 

 had ventured to leave the premises. I had some difficulty in 

 making them believe that for a leopard to attack a human being 

 unprovoked was, in those countries at least, unheard of; and 

 they themselves confessed that the leopards ran away as fast as 

 they did. But as the morning was passing, and I had no wish 

 to encounter the leopards, with which the forest is well stocked, 

 alone by night, I started again, with a promise to revisit my 

 countryfolk and hold another service with them. 



Turning back into the forest, I had only to pursue my course 

 by any path that lay due west, and I should reach the open hills 

 before nightfall. Again and again the Ichneumon {Genetta afra) 

 crossed in front of me; and Avherever the trees were sparse, the 

 Woodchat and the Southern Shrike [Lanius meridionalis) might 

 be seen ; of both of which I obtained several nests. A pair of 

 Kites, by their restless movements, betrayed their alarm ; but 

 finding the thicket round a great cork-tree impenetrable, I was 

 obliged to be content with noting the spot for a futm-e search, 

 when I should be provided with a hatchet. Occasionally the 

 Roller, ' Tschugrug' would rise screaming from a chestnut-tree, 

 and, after making grotesque gyrations in the air, drop headlong 

 into the forest out of sight and shot. I had, however, the satis- 

 faction of obtaining my first " Geai d^Afrique,^^ as the colonists 

 term the Roller {Coracias garrula). The Algerian Chaffinch and 

 Titmouse were frequent [Fringilla spodiogena and Parus cai'u- 

 leanus), and I heard but could not see the Woodpecker and the 

 Jay {Garrulus cervicalis) ; but, as in most forests, winged life was 

 not abundant, except at the outskirts. In a lovely glade I dis- 

 mounted for dinner under a thick ivy-clad oak [Quercus ballotn), 

 and hobbled and fed my nag. While lying there I obtained 

 two or three Ringdoves [Columba palumbus), which Buvry has 

 distinguished under the name of Cohcmba excelsa, from the Euro- 

 pean bird, though I confess myself wholly unable to detect the 

 diiferences. Many Turtle Doves of our common species were to 

 be seen in every open, and I found a Nightingale's nest at 

 the stump of a decayed tree, and two nests of the Algerian 



