362 Rev. H. B. Tristram's Notes from Eastern Algeria. 



lonely commandant ; and had noted how, out of thirty-three 

 houses which compose the settlement, nine were drinking shops. 

 We had had enough of ' civilization ' and drunken colonists, 

 and determined to push our reconnoissances further and to re- 

 sume our camp life in the wilds. 



Two Hungarian noblemen who had been on a hunting ex- 

 cursion in the south shared our quarters, and had brouglit 

 back, along with their trophies of Antelope, Gazelle, and Mouf- 

 flon {Ovis tragelajjhus), wondrous tales of the abundance of 

 Vultures, Eagles, and Bustards in regions where we had not as 

 yet penetrated. At a cabinet council we therefore determined 

 that Salvin should reconnoitre the neighbourhood for a suitable 

 camping ground where we might examine the habits of the 

 Raptorials at home, that Simpson should push to the south-west 

 for a few days and report on the prospect of desert birds for the 

 following month, while I was to investigate the Cork forests and 

 lakes to the north on the Tunisian frontier, to ascertain the 

 probability of a successful bird -harvest there. At the end of a 

 week we were to reunite and decide on our future movements. 

 Not that we had accomplished nothing at Souk Harras. A fine 

 specimen of Bonelli's Eagle had been picked up on a heap of 

 rubbish in the street. The commandant had sent us an enor- 

 mous Griffon with its wing broken. The Barbary Falcon and 

 the Red Kite were daily noted, and the Gypaete poised himself 

 every morning over our quarters. These calls we had duly re- 

 turned by repeated visits to a range of formidable cliffs, where 

 we could see the huge piles of firewood which formed the homes 

 of three families of Lammergeyers ; but vainly, with the aid of 

 ropes and timid climbers, had we essayed a nearer acquaintance. 



But if the king of Eastern Vultures had baffled us, the less 

 graceful yet equally majestic Griffon had here afforded us our 

 first oological triumph of the season. A French 'colon' who, 

 when occasionally sober, plied the trades of carpenter and ' chas- 

 seur,' had offered to take us to some accessible Griffons' nests. 

 The rain was descending in torrents when we set out with our 

 guide, and so dense were the clouds that it was impossible to de- 

 tect even a Griffon at 200 yards. However, after some scrambling 

 in the forest, we approached the edge of a long range of cliffs, 



