( -"^e ) 



region. They are absent, from the Erg and sandy ]jlainH, as well as from the Chotts 

 and Sebchas, as they require rocks, clay hills, steep banks of river-beds, or at least 

 a well for nesting. 



^Ve saw the last specimens on the southern cscarimient of the platean of 

 Tademait, two kilometres sonth of Ain Guettara. 



Thongh a single bird would occasionally be shy, as a rule, in si)ring and 

 summer at least, these birds are very tame and confiding, and I have seen them 

 coming up within three or four yards (sonth of Onargla and in the Oned Mya), 

 near the tent, or amusing themselves with a date-stone or picking off flies from 

 an empty sardine-tin. In the south they were, with the exception of the qnieter 

 and less confiding Ammomanes (Ic.srrti tiii/a, the only singing birds; they surpassed 

 in beauty many gaily coloured Ijirds, and one did not like to shoot them, though 

 they were common enough. I cannot f|uite understand how Mr. Spatz can describe 

 these birds as rather shy. 



It was of course our great desire to find the eggs of these birds. It is most 

 extraordinary that the nests are so difiicult to find. Zedlitz describes this {Jonrn. 

 f. Oni. 1912, pp. 500, i")01j, and we too have several times searched in vain for 

 hours for nests that we knew must be there. We have, however, found many 

 old nests, and others witli young birds, as well as some eggs, at last. A ready- 

 made nest without eggs was found on March 10, another on the ~'Oth, on (he rocks 

 called " Djorf-el-Bagra." 



On March 31 our luck seemed to have come. In the well called Hassi 

 Marroket I located, after some ([uiet waiting — the old birds having been made 

 shy by the noisy taking of water for men and camels — a nest in one of the crevices 

 between the stones of the wall, about 'i\ m. from the edge ; before the hole had 

 been located, Hilgert was let down and unintentionally dipped in the water, but 

 he operated on a wrong cleft ; afterwards Ahmed-ben-Naili descended on a rope, 

 and he brought out the two eggs with great difficulty, but to our disgnst he cracked 

 one, and they were so near being hatched out and so brittle, that only one could 

 be half-way saved. 



It was surj)rising to me that we found no nest at Fort Miribel. An old nest 

 was discovered in a loophole of one of the houses ; but in spite of hours spent in 

 search, no nest was found in the valley, where a pair was observed coming and 

 going. Empty nests, mostly last year's, were several times seen aiuong the rocks 

 ou the banks of the Southern Oued Mya, but not until April 3o was another clutch 

 found. It consisted of three eggs ; but they were so hard-set that only two coulil 

 be saved, and those with huge holes, the embryos being cut out. 



The next day our efforts were at last rewarded, as we found a nest with three 

 nearly fresh eggs. The eggs are not blue, but of a glossless white with or without 

 the faintest bluish hue, not so blue even as the palest eggs of Ocnaidhe Icucura. 

 The six eggs which I can measure are 22 x 16-1, 22 x 15-9, 22 x IG, 2.3 x 16*7, 

 22-5 X 16-2, and 22 x in-4 mm. Small rusty red spots are more or less confined 

 to a zone around the large end, while some show distinctly underlying pale bluish- 

 grey spots. Two faded eggs from an old nest found by Hilgert are smaller, and 

 have much larger spots, but their identity conld of course not be proved. The 

 nest is always placed in holes or crevices of rocks, steep banks, or in walls of 

 wells, round gardens, or of buildings. There is mostly a long and often wide path 

 of flat stones laid out in front, if the nest stands far in, but this is entirely absent 

 if the hole is not deep, as in the case of the one with three eggs found on .May 1, 



