408 Mr. F. C. Selous on 



deep cup, and contained four eggs of a very pale pinky 

 white sparsely dotted over with small black spots. In the 

 course of the afternoon we saw a pair of Northern Nightin- 

 gales (Daulias philomela), but I was very much disappointed 

 at the extreme scarcity of small Inrds of all kinds in this very 

 inviting-looking hunting-ground. 



The next morning we again hunted for nests near Aidiu 

 for five hours, but were absolutely unsuccessful; as we did not 

 find a single nest. We left by the midday train for Appa, 

 which we reached at o p.m. Appa is a small Turkish village 

 situated at the eastern extremity of the Maimun Dagh — 

 Monkey Mountain — and is about 240 miles inland from 

 Smyrna. Tiie character of the country is that of wide, arid, 

 treeless plains, bounded by mountain-ranges. These plains 

 lie at an altitude of about 3000 feet above sea-level. In the 

 evening I found two Crested Larks^ nests within a mile of the 

 station building. I put the birds off both nests^ one of which 

 contained four and the other five eggs. I also found the nest 

 of a Rock-Sparrow [Petronia stulta) in the bank of a railway- 

 cutting close to the station. We caught the bird on the nest, 

 but, though this was just ready for eggs, there were unfortu- 

 nately none in it. The hole at the end of which this nest had 

 been placed had been bored four feet into the sandy bank. 

 It looked just like a Kingfisher's nesting-hole, but whether it 

 had been made by the llock-Sparrows themselves 1 cannot 

 say. It may have been made by a Bee-eater, though against 

 this is the fact that there were no other holes near it. There 

 was a large cavity at the end of the bore-hole, and in this a 

 bulky nest had been built of grass lined with feathers. 



I had come to Appa because, while hunting wild goats 

 on the Maimun Dagh in the early spring of 1897, I had 

 noticed a number of Cranes {Grus communis) feeding on the 

 marshy ground on the edge of a large salt-lake which extends 

 from the foot of the Monkey Mountain to the opposite range 

 of the Zuut Dagh. This salt-lake, from which the water 

 almost entirely evaporates in hot weather, must be nearly 

 20 miles in circumference, and is called by the Turks of the 

 neighbourhood " Adji toos Col." It was early in March 



