162 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the 



discover a nest just commenced at the edge of a meadow near 

 Algiers^ which I was in the habit of passing almost daily, and 

 thus for more than a month I had a good opportunity of noting 

 the Fantail's habits at my leisure. When the first egg was laid, 

 the foundation of the nest was almost transparent, and its filmy 

 sides not above an inch in height. I occasionally took an egg, 

 leaving the dam to sit on five out of eight which she had laid ; 

 and during the whole period of incubation the male continued to 

 enlarge and strengthen the nest, till, by the time the young were 

 hatched, it was almost three inches in depth and of a tolerably 

 compact structure. When completed, it is sometimes, but not 

 always, half-domed at the top. The eggs, which are very little 

 larger than those of the Long-tail Titmouse, are of a delicate pale- 

 green or greenish-white, sprinkled with a few russet spots, not 

 concentrated towards the lai-ger end. The bird, which is ex- 

 tremely wary, hovers over the fields with a jerking flight, waving 

 and expanding its tail, and then suddenly drops like a lark, but 

 always at a distance from its nest, — which it leaves in the most 

 cautious manner, dropping from it into the loug grass, and 

 running concealed for some yards before it takes wing. From 

 the two nests now brought me I secured only three eggs, as the 

 whole contents of one, the most complete, had been lost in the 

 grass when struck by the scythe. 



The next morning, having stored my treasures, and left in- 

 structions for the safe custody of my discoveries until my return 

 the following month, I started with well though lightly filled 

 panniers, and, after a halt at my secluded fellow-countrymen's 

 cottages in the wilderness, returned in health, without any sym- 

 ptoms of fever, which is so dreaded by visitors to the Lake. 



On the 10th of June I returned to Halloula by the same 

 route to investigate the habits of the Herons and Ducks. This 

 time, as the soldiers had all been withdrawn from the works for 

 the summer, I secured the attendance of a professional chasseur, 

 who was accustomed to resort to the district iu winter for wild- 

 fowl shooting. I learnt from the Zouaves at Koleali that many 

 eggs had been amassed for me after my departure, but that an 

 agent of M. Verreaux, having, unfortunately for me, passed that 

 way, had secured the whole, the " Boulcts " preferring a franc in 



