THE RED SEA HILLS 359 



On the deserts of the interior I have notes of finding two similar 

 nests at Jebel Surgham and one at Jebel Gerein on February i4th 

 and 26th respectively; as well as others of the abounding short-toed 

 lark (Calandrella brachydactyld). 



LICHTENSTEIN'S DESERT-BABBLER (Argya acacicz). Another of 

 the desert-types clad in sand-hued monotones, but in figure, a slim, 

 smart-built bird ; equally common on high ground or low, on coast or 

 far inland, and gifted with a resonant musical whistle which sounds 

 farther away the nearer you approach the performer. A nest at 

 Sarrowit, 3500 feet, contained on March 28th two turquoise-blue 

 eggs, like large hedge-sparrow's. Being built in the very heart of a 

 horribly matted thorny acacia, 8 feet high and 20 feet across, the twin 



RAVEN (Corvus umbrinus) ON HEAD OF ARIEL SARROWIT. 



treasures cost lacerated hands and arms to secure, the thorns recalling 

 (Lynes writes) the "indurated malice of the sword-broom and pin- 

 cushion gorse in Spain." 



CROWS AND RAVENS. Our camp at Sarrowit was attended by a 

 retinue of pied crows and ravens, the latter of the brown-necked species, 

 Corvus umbrinus ; whereas at Erkowit, though only 20 miles away, all 

 the ravens belonged to that weird, broad-winged form distinguished as 

 C. affinis sketches of both kinds annexed. The "brown-necked" 

 ravens were all as black and as glossy as our British ravens, and their 

 nesting-habits precisely the same. In April I put one raven off her 

 eyry which, by sign, evidently contained ravelets ; and situate exactly 

 as our Northumbrian ravens nest in a cavern, with overhung rocks 

 above and a sheer face belew. Three weeks earlier, on March i8th, 

 Lynes had found another nest with three eggs in a heglig thorn-tree at 

 Sinkat a strongly-built stick nest lined with camels' hair. 



