( 2 ) 



Western Sahara, in order to explore the ornis of those parts of the deHert, and 

 to collect other animals and birds as W(d!. as far as time and op|inrtnnities 

 [lermitted. 



We obtained, with the Kind lielp of onr friend Dr. H. ('. Nissen, in Alger, 

 the kindest possible letters of recommendation IVcmi tiie tiovernor-Cieneral of 

 Als^eria, his brother, tlie chief of his cabinet, and from the military anthorilies 

 to "the commanding olHcers in liie sonth, and com|iletcd onr outfit in Alger 

 and Biskra, which we left on February ~'ii, |i)|:.>. 1 was fiirtiimite to be 

 accompanied by Wr. Carl llilgerl, who had been with lis to Kl-Oued in 

 lOdii and to Ghardaia in 1011. The camels in JJiskra have Jiot a good name, 

 and I was warned not to bny any, because they were not accustomed to arduous 

 travels, and therefore not to be recommended for a journeyto In-Salah anil I)ack. 

 Thus 1 only hired the necessary animals and men as far as Tonggourt, and I 

 believe this was (he right course, although more expensive. The weather wn.s 

 glorious, no more magnificent day being jiossiblc : a cloudless sky, calm and 

 warm, and tlie desert greener than we had ever seen it l)efore. It had rained 

 much, I believe chiefly in November ami December, and a great amouni of small 

 vegetation and countless flowers were seen almost everywhere. 



From Biskra one passes first through lields, and then through a clayey and 

 partially sandy ]dain with numerous low tamarisk bushes. Then one crosses the 

 Oued Djeddi, Iutc very small, coming from the mountains of .\Hou ami Lagbonut 

 and disappearing in the great Chott Melrhir. Here, a few hundred yards from the 

 river, lies Bordj Saada, a large caravanserai, near which we pitched onr tent 

 for the first time. It was a beautiful, though cold, night ; cranes flew overhead 

 in the evening, calling lomlly. The rich verdure of this winter was not so much 

 noticed in tlie low-lying plain near Biskra as here. Immediately siiutli of Bordj 

 Saada begins a slightly elevated stony plain, and there it was that the great 

 difference between a fertile year, like the present one, and a dry one, like that of 

 lOO'.i, was obvious. Not only were there many more ]dants, but butterflies were seen 

 ill luimbers : the coiuinon and widespread I'ljrinnfix rinihii and I'irr/.i (htpUilire 

 (snbsp.), the pretty yellow l-lm:ldo,; clinrtuniu, and on the plain south of Bordj Saada, 

 where it becomes less stony, less bare, and where — near Bordj Chegga — Zizy/ihas 

 bnshes are numerous, Melitai'd diilijnm (lenfiticohi was far from rare, though mostly 

 more or less worn. Fjichlor i-hiwlnnia was observed as far south as Tamerna, th<iugh 

 rare there. 



Farther southwards the country becomes more sandy, and there it is that, 

 a little northwards of Kef-el-Dor, birds peculiar to the sandy desert, such as 

 Galerida tlicklar rifichlcri and Si/lda iiuna tleacrti, are found. South of Kef-el- 

 Dor we descend into the great Chott Melrhir, now to a large extent actually 

 full of water, where three years ago only the " mirage " or " fata morgana " made 

 us believe that we saw lakes and trees ; great masses of Sandgrouse, apitarently 

 all Fterocles ■senegulus, were passing high overhead, coming from the water. We 

 were, however, greatly disappointed that we saw no water-birds whatever, though 

 ipiite recently many ducks had been seen, and near Bordj Saada we had found 

 three dead Flamingoes, wiiich had killed themselves by striking the telegraph 

 wires, and hundreds of Flamingoes were observed some weeks afterwards near 

 Mrai'er by Frenchmen and Arabs. 



At Nca-bcn-llzig we camped in the same place as in I'.iO'.i, near the little 

 oasis of palm-trees (see Nov. ZooL xviii. p. 4fiii). We were troubled by small 



