AFRIC'S CORAL STRAND 



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a month or more earlier than is their wont inland. Those 

 first seen to-day (February 7th) were a mated pair, their 

 dashing, erotic pursuit, in rapid turn and twist, with flashing 

 " hoopoe-wing " and harsh grating note followed, by a sweet 

 epithalamium were charming to watch. Alas ! I had to 

 " collect " both at one shot while they were yet engaged in gentle 



GULLS IN THE RED SEA. 



dalliance ; and the same day found two nests, already complete 

 save for the interior lining. Little "dug-outs" each, the site 

 half excavated in the sand, half overhung by a starveling 

 desert-shrub. Eggs would have been laid in each by mid- 

 February, and one month later we found fledged young on wing 

 In the coastal region, the crested larks are also earlier in 

 nesting, having eggs by the first days of February; and a 

 similar remark applies to the finch-larks (Pyrrhulauda). 



