388 Mr. D. A. Bannerman : First Impressions [Ibis, 



Field-glasses were substituted for the cullector^s gun, and 

 much of my time — some eight weeks in all —was taken up in 

 visiting the marvellous Roman and Punic remains of which 

 northern Africa holds such a woudert'nl store. 



We left Marseilles on a bitterly cold morning of February 

 last, in the S.S. ' Due d'Aumale' — the best steamer of the 

 r^fompagnie Transatlantique plying between that port and 

 Tunis. The voyage was calm but uneventful, and to my 

 surprise neither Petrels nor Shearwaters were seen. The 

 change in twenty-four hours from heavy clouds and chilly 

 east winds to a cloudless sky and hot sun was as welcome 

 as it was sudden ; and as we passed along the entire ^^esterly 

 coast of Sardinia within easy sight of the little white houses 

 dotted along its cliffs, an interesting, though restricted, view 

 of this island was obtained. From the sea it looked somewhat 

 uninterestino-, monotonous low hills succeeding one another 

 until the more mountaiuous southern extremity of the island 

 was reached. 



In the early morning of the 4th of February we steamed 

 past the ruins of ancient Carthage into the calm waters 

 of the Bay of Tunis — up the canal wliich tlie French 

 have ingeniously constructed through the lake to the pros- 

 ])erous capital of Tunisia. Tunis strikes the traveller 

 immediately as being a thoroughly well-planned, well- 

 administered town — the French have shown their wisdom 

 in preserving intact the large Arab quarter, the souks and 

 bazaars of whicli are probably without rival anywhere in the 

 world. But it is of the impressions of an ornithologist that 

 I wish to write, in the hope that others may be stimulated to 

 follow the excellent example set by Mr. Joseph Whitaker 

 and make Tunisia their "happy hunting-ground." 



The town of Tunis is itself by no means a bad centre for 

 the ornithologist ; many delightful excursions can be made, 

 and highly-interesting localities visited within a short dis- 

 tance of the city. The electric train which runs to Carthage 

 and La Marsa crosses and then partly encircles the wide 

 Lac de Tunis — a broad sheet of water which has long been 

 the haunt of the Flamingo (Plioenicopterus antiquoruni). 



