274 Phillips, Birds of Sinai. [j$fe 



relieved by the sight of a single creature, barring lizards and scor- 

 pions. At rare intervals an Egyptian Vulture sails overhead or a 

 pair of Ravens follows the caravan for a time. At nightfall one 

 or two White Wagtails gather around the tents and run about 

 under the very feet of the camels. 



There are only two spots along this road where birds can really 

 exist. One is the Wells of Moses, eight miles from Suez, and the 

 other is W f ady Gharandel, identified with the Elim of the Bible 

 Exodus. At this latter place we arrived on the third day, camping 

 at the upper end of the Wady where there was a well some six feet 

 below the surface of the ground and a number of palms, sayal 

 thorn trees and shrubs of various sorts. Here we got a few birds, 

 a Great Grey Shrike, Wheatears in abundance, Ruppell's and 

 Bonelli's Warblers, Chiff-Chaffs, Spanish Sparrows and the pale 

 Cray-Martins. Besides these we saw that very characteristic 

 plain gray warbler of the Sinai Peninsula, Cereomela asthenia, the 

 Chat-Robin or Black-start. Here too we began to see the Sinai 

 Desert Larks. 



Between Gharandel and Wady Feran, where you first find real 

 water, there is almost nothing of interest to the ornithologist. For 

 part of a day the road runs along the coast of the Red Sea under 

 rough cliffs, but not a gull or a shore-bird enlivens the monotony 

 of that shell strewn shore. You begin to see some of the handsome 

 Black and White Chats along this part of the road. We took three 

 species, the White-rumped, Pied and Hooded Chat. These are 

 very striking birds, extremely shy and by no means easy to get. 

 The White-rumped has a very low but sweet song. Wherever 

 there is any vegetation at all one sees if he looks closely, an extraor- 

 dinary little wren-like cock-tailed warbler, Scotocera iniquietus 

 that is an adept at hiding. If I remember rightly, it has a peculiar 

 little Chickadee-like note which I heard long before I ever managed 

 to get the bird. When one gets into the ravines about Petra this 

 little bird is more plentiful. Then another very characteristic 

 warbler of the scattered sayal trees is the Lesser White-throat 

 which returns to Palestine and breeds in great numbers. You can 

 identify it a long way off by its monotonous " sip-sip-sip." I think 

 it is quite the commonest spring bird of Sinai. 



On April 1, we arrived at the beautiful brook of Feran and 



