244 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



plant, whence it will rise vertically upwards, emitting a long-drawn 

 whistle, and then return to the same bush. 



Regarding this bird and its song the Arabs have a legend, which 

 is related by Dr. Koenig, to the effect that a " Lefa " — the dreaded 

 Horned Viper {Cerastes cornutus) of the Sahara — once offered its 

 friendship and love to this Lark, the union proving a happy and 

 peaceful one for some time. After a while, however, on the Lark one 

 day leaving its young ones in the charge of the " Lefa," the reptile, 

 true to its wicked instincts, fell upon the little ones and devoured 

 them ! The grief of the poor mother on returning and discovering 

 what had happened was unbounded, and rising into the air, she 

 bitterly bewailed her sad loss, and to the present day continues to 

 mourn in the same pathetic strains ! Apropos of this story it is 

 difficult to understand how the ground-nesting birds are able to hatch 

 their eggs and bring up their young broods safely in many of these 

 desert districts, where the ground is literally honeycombed with the 

 holes of small mammals and reptiles. The mere knowledge of the 

 proximity of such neighbours, one might suppose, would be sufficient 

 to deter the birds from nesting in these spots, but such is not the case ; 

 on the contrary, the birds appear to be perfectly at their ease, and 

 without apprehension of any danger. Indeed, so far at any rate as 

 the small rodents are concerned, the birds seem to be quite capable 

 of holding their own, and I have seen immature Chats chase and 

 drive away desert rats considerably larger than themselves. 



I have never taken the nest and eggs of the present species myself, 

 but the former is said to be rather a bulky, though compactly built 

 structure, composed of small twigs and grasses, lined with finer 

 materials, such as soft vegetable down and spiders' webs, the latter 

 substance, indeed, being a characteristic of the nest of the species. 

 The eggs, of which the complement would appear to be three or four, 

 are of a delicate creamy-white, with grey or violet shell-marks and 

 brown surface spots, sometimes forming a zone round the larger end. 

 They are rather small for the size of the bird, their average measure- 

 ments being 21 X 16 mm. 



The breeding season commences in March and extends throughout 

 April and May ; nests are sometimes found placed on low desert 

 bushes, as well as on the ground. 



