310 EXTRACTS FROM 



hut stood near the dilapidated building with its round dome 

 and lighthouse-looking minaret. 



At this place we resolved to stop and pursue our shooting 

 on foot. The various kinds of herons instantly vanished at 

 our first attempt to get near them; but we found by the 

 water's edge many smaller shore-birds, among them some 

 Avocets, those remarkable black-and-white birds, with long 

 stilted legs and recurved bills, also Ruffs, and four or five 

 sorts of sandpipers. 



We now separated, rambling in various directions ; our 

 guns were soon cracking merrily, and in less than half an 

 hour the little island was quite shot out. 



The formation of these islands is peculiar, and ^they 

 merit a few words of description. Almost all of them are 

 very long, narrow, and covered with shells one might almost 

 say formed of them. Thick dark green tamarisk-bushes grow 

 all over them, and their shores are flat, sandy, and in some 

 places clayey, while the feathers and down of the great 

 Pelicans, the Rosy Flamingoes, and all kinds of waterfowl 

 are everywhere strewn about. Some of them, especially those 

 which are characterized by large sandbanks, are quite plastered 

 over with thick deposits of guano, and one sees in the clay 

 the footprints of every variety of marsh- and water-bird ; at 

 one spot I even found the tracks of an Ichneumon. 



After a short but pretty productive spell of shooting we 

 continued our voyage in an easterly direction, in order to get 

 to the Flamingo district, and indeed we soon perceived among 

 the islands a long rosy bank of these peculiar creatures a 

 lovely sight. 



A narrow tongue of land had to be crossed, so we stopped 

 the dahabeeyahs ; and as the afternoon was now far advanced, 

 we advised the other gentlemen to disperse among the islands, 

 and settled that this was to be the place for our night- 

 quarters. 



