THE RED SEA HILLS 357 



across them, and that my unknown gazelles of September 

 1904 at Elmenteita were, in fact, ariel. 1 



It was, by the way, the same Elmi Hassan who was 

 afterwards with SELOUS, and who was badly injured 

 by a wounded buffalo on the Northern Guaso Nyero, 

 British East, as related by Selous in an article entitled 

 "My Last Buffalo" (Field, June 8th, 1912). In Mr 

 J. G. Millais' excellent " LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS," the 

 name is inadvertently misspelt " Elani." 



BIRD-LIFE ON THE DESERT HILLS 



However grateful be our memories, yet 'twere idle to deny that 

 these Red Sea ranges are in truth but a barren upland, and that 

 nothing save abounding enthusiasm would ever wrench from them 

 the full secret of their hidden treasures. To claim that such qualities 

 characterised our expedition of 1913-14 is no egotism on the part of 

 its feeblest member. 



An outline of the zoological features of THE DESERTS has been 

 given in a previous chapter ; a few local details are added here under 

 specific heads : 



CURVED-BILL DESERT LARK (Certhilauda alaudipes}. This big 

 lark is equally distributed on highland and lowland alike and in the 

 deserts of the interior. The photos (facing pp. 356 and 358) by 

 Captain Lynes show its method of nesting. 



Photo. No. i. Nest built inlow scrub-bush in the desert, its 

 base just touching the ground below : ready for eggs on 

 April Qth at Sarrowit, 3500 feet. 



Photo. No. 2. Another nest on saltings near the coast. Built 

 alongside a hummock, and sheltered beneath the wreckage 

 of a sand-smothered shrub. Contained two hard-sat eggs, 

 Port Sudan, April i4th. 



SAND-LARKS (Ammomanes). There are two species. The larger, 

 A. deserti, big as a skylark, pale unicolorous sandy-brown ; the second, 



1 Sir F. J. Jackson questions this, and his doubt well-nigh signs the 

 death-warrant of my conjecture. He suggests that the unknown animals 

 may have been impala, which at that time were " so harassed in their 

 bush-haunts by the Wandorobo that they took to the plains and spent the 

 whole day in the open." 



