Mesopotamian Birds. 289 



to the marsh of the Suwik-Ish lake, hundreds of Coots were 

 feeding on the tender grass shoots by the lakeside ; and I 

 saw also many Tern. Chats, something like the desert chat, 

 hopped about on the top of the vacated trenches; and as I 

 walked round one of the trenches, wJiich had become full of 

 water, a beautiful little Kingfisher, apparently rather smaller 

 and darker than our English species, darted along in front 

 of me. Many Quail were flushed here; the black Partridge 

 started calling, and a pair of Stone- Curlews allowed me to 

 get close to them. On April 1 5 I found near the Aba- 

 Roman Mounds a crested Lark's nest with four eggs. Bee- 

 eaters were plentiful; and on April 18 I had a good sight 

 of a large Night- Jar, chocolate brown with darker bars. At 

 Biet-ais-Essem in the third week in April, Sand Grouse were 

 still numerous and flying high, but were paired. One that 

 had been wounded in the, wiiig wa? captured and proved to 

 be the painted Sand-grouse. On May 8, down at the Narrows, 

 we found the nest of a Warbler, which is very like the Night- 

 ingale, except for a white bar across the centre of the fan of 

 the tail, which it flirts well over its back. The nest was built 

 on the ground in the middle of a small shrub, and had four 

 egg.-) like those of a Pied Wagtail. Here, too, was found 

 the nest of a tiny long-tailed Warbler (the size of a Gold 

 Crest) with young. ,The nest (the size of a dormouse's nest) 

 was woven with cobwebs to twigs of the bush, and was made 

 of dry grass and dome-shaped, with an entrance near the 

 top. 



On May 1 8 I dug out the nest of a Bee-eater in the 

 side of one of the Macon Mounds, close to the top. Ihe 

 hole ran with a slight' slope straight back and down into the 

 mound for 6ft., and then ended in an oval chaniiier about sin. 

 in diameter, which was at a depth of 3ft. from the surface. 

 In the nest, which was just the soft loamy soil at the end of 

 the hole, were two white round eggs, a little bigger than a 

 kingfisher's, transparent, and highly polished. From later 

 /bbservations I judged the clutch to be four or five. About 

 May 27. Ave miles soutli-south-east of the Mounds, not far 

 from the Jujailah redoubt and Sinn-Atbar, I found three 

 nests of the sand grouse, each containing three eggs in an 



