2 Mr. C. W. Wyatt on the Birds of Sinai. 



of onr journey, about ten miles, ou donkeys, which we had 

 stowed away, in case we should need them, in the bow of the 

 boat. We had not, however, proceeded more than half a mile 

 before the growling of camels showed we were approaching an 

 encampment, which proved to be the one I was in search of, 

 Ain Musa not having been reached the day before. 



After breakfast the donkeys were sent back again, and we 

 started on our first day's journey in the desert, making up a 

 goodly retinue of forty-four camels, thirty-three of which car- 

 ried our luggage and provisions. 



For the first three days our course lay between the Tih 

 (a range of mountains which extends across the peninsula) and 

 the sea, over vast rolling plains, generally covered with grit and 

 shingle only, though in some places the dreariness of the road 

 was somewhat relieved by the appearance of a few desert-herbs, 

 and bushes of the " retem'' {Retama ratam), a broom, the 

 juniper-tree of the Bible. Most of the former, however, were 

 dried up and withered. Signs of life were very few and far 

 between. A few lizards dashed across the track in front of our 

 camels ; occasionally Corvus nmbrinus might be seen, a con- 

 spicuous object in so featureless a country ; two or three 

 Egyptian Vultures [Neophron percnopterus) flew over our heads ; 

 and at night our camp was always visited by Motacilla alha, 

 running about amongst the luggage in a most familiar manner. 

 A journey of three days brought us into Wady Gharandel, 

 where we were to encamp and spend the following day. In 

 one of the neighbouring wadys I met with Cotyle jmlusfris 

 and Saxicola leucocephala. In Wady Gharandel there are some 

 tamarisks (Arab, "tarfah'^), and at the lower end a shallow 

 stream, which never fails, it is said, even in the middle of sum- 

 mer. Here the next day, when I was taking a walk, I flushed 

 a couple of Teal [Anas crecca) from amongst the rushes, and 

 a small flock of Pigeons [Columba schimperi) flew out of a 

 cliff above us, followed by a Lanner-Falcou [Falco lanarius). 

 Higher up the wady there is a colony of Milvus (Bgyptius. 

 The next day we were off again. The character of the country 

 began to change, the wadys became deeper, and mountains 

 appeared in the distance, and the following day we entered the 



