358 SAVAGE SUDAN 



A. arenicolor, a delicate pale cinnamon-hued bird. Its wings are 

 slightly darker-tipped and the tail more rufous, with sub-terminal bar; 

 but these are the only "blemishes" in an otherwise uniformly bleached 

 and desert-like plumage. 



A notable characteristic of these two desert-dwellers and one 

 which they share with the species next to be described, the ant-chat 

 (as well as with the black wheatear, Dromolcea leucurd) is the habit 

 of barricading the entrance to their subterranean homes with a 

 banquette of pebbles outside, as shown in the photographs annexed. 

 In Spain this curious custom has gained for the black wheatear its 

 Spanish title of Pedrero ( = "Stone-mason"). 



Photo. No. 3. Nest of Ammomanes deserti^ placed deep under 

 a stone for shade; and, for coolness, facing N.E. towards 

 the prevailing wind. This nest, on April gth, contained two 

 young of about three days' growth, clad in erect fluffy white 

 down Sinkat, 2900 feet. 



Photo. No. 4. Another nest of the same species, but situate 

 inside a rock-cranny. It was ready for eggs on April gth. 

 Very large pebbles, it will be seen, surround its entrance. 



ANT-CHAT (Cercomela scotocerca). This bird has also adopted 

 the curious habit of piling up a banquette of stones outside its front 

 door as shown in section-sketch at p. 365. This nest (built of dry 

 grass and lined with goats' hair) was placed far in beneath an earth- 

 fast rock, the entrance-slit barely wide enough for the owner to squeeze 

 through. The rampart numbered 130 pebbles ! This was near Erkowit, 

 4000 feet, where the ant-chat was common; but, though we found 

 several nests (some betrayed by the pebbles outside) no eggs were 

 laid up to the date of our leaving the hills on April zoth. 



CRESTED LARK (Alauda cristatd). Like Certhilauda, this is 

 universally distributed throughout the desert-regions along the 

 littoral, on the mountains, and in the interior deserts alike. Yet 

 though a true desert-denizen, it is less prone to assume an assimilative 

 desert-dress. 



The crested lark is a much earlier breeder. On the coast I found 

 occupied nests as early as the first week in February (1919), these 

 being very slight structures built on open desert, though often 

 sheltered by some projecting stone or by the root of a sand-smothered 

 shrub. The eggs invariably numbered two and were boldly spotted. 



At Erkowit, 4500 feet, one pair had already hatched their young 

 on April 6th, though three days later another pair were busy building. 



