552 Mr, C. Dixon on the 



and Mzouri, near which the Flannngo is reported to breed; 

 but we did not see a trace of tliis bird. The salt from these 

 lakes is collected by some Europeans, who live close at hand. 

 Here also, in this di^eary wilderness, several tribes of Arabs 

 reside, and their flocks and herds graze over the scanty pas- 

 tures. As we drew near to the village of Ain Yacout, the 

 scenery became far less arid, and on the mountains juniper 

 and ilex trees may be seen. Then the country again assumed a 

 more desert aspect as we Avound along between mountains and 

 over plains. For the whole day we travelled on through ex- 

 cessive heat, made the more unbearable by the clouds of dust 

 and sand that the stifi" breeze whirled round us. Some five 

 miles from Batna we passed the small village of Fesdis ; and 

 here the arid country changes, giving place to sparsely wooded 

 hill-sides. Batna appeared in the distance, a small town 

 enclosed by walls, to which the railway from Constan- 

 tine will soon be open. The country round Batna is moun- 

 tainous ; indeed the place is situated on a small plain sur- 

 rounded by the wooded heights of the Aures mountains. 

 We fonnd but few birds of interest in the immediate neigh- 

 boi;rliood of Batna, but succeeded in obtaining specimens of 

 Moussier's Bush-Chat. At Batna we made the acquaintance 

 of Si Abbas, the Kaid of the Aures, who invited us to his 

 house in the mountains at Oued Taga. It was our intention 

 to make the journey to Biskra on mules right through the 

 mountains by this route ; but the unsettled state of the weather 

 changed our plans, and we got no further than Oued Taga 

 in this direction, returning in a couple of days to Batna, 

 whence we went on to Biskra by the diligence. On the way 

 up to Oued Taga I shot the Calandra Lark and the Tawny 

 Pipit, both birds being common in the barley-fields. The 

 country, so soon as we ascended the hills beyond Lambessa, 

 began to improve at each step, and we were soon amongst 

 scenery all that could be desired, partly composed of barley 

 patches, the rest scrub and evergreen-oak woods, studded 

 here and there with patches of greenest turf gay with wild 

 flowers. Here, in these woods, we met with the Roller and 

 the Bee- eater. The Algerian Chaffinch and the Ultramarine 



