8 INTRODUCTION. 



dry ground, the latter, in places, better wooded than usual. 

 Near Larache, on the north bank of the river, are the ruins of 

 the ancient Lixus, at or near the spot where Hercules is supposed 

 to have conquered Antaeus, the founder of Tangier, which takes 

 its name from his wife Tinga. 



South of Larache are the lakes of Meshree el Haddar (the 

 talkers' ford) and Has el Doura, the latter running for miles 

 southwards in the direction of Rabat. These lakes swarm with 

 every kind of aquatic bird, according to the season ; but in the 

 breeding-time the mosquitoes are enough to drive any European 

 away, besides which the nests are so plundered by the Arabs 

 that it is hardly worth while going there for them. Further 

 south than this I have not been, and refer my readers for any 

 information to Mr. Drake's paper in ' The Ibis ' (I. c.). 



Eastward of Tangier, taking the road to Tetuan, there is little 

 or nothing to be done in the way of birds until the latter place 

 is reached, after a long and tedious day's journey ; indeed all 

 that part of Morocco which I have visited is very wearisome to 

 travel over, except near Tetuan and Ceuta, where the mountains 

 break the sameness of the route, and where alone any true 

 beauty of scenery is to be found. 



Of these hills only those in the immediate vicinity of Tetuan 

 can be visited, owing to the lawless character of the hill tribes 

 and their Mahometan prejudices, and, last but not least, owing 

 also to the exaggerated stories made up to prevent any European 

 from travelling about. In a stream from one of these mountains, 

 to the south of Tetuan, a species of trout (Salmo macrostigma] is 

 found ; they are also probably met with in other places, which 

 are forbidden ground to the European. 



The country about Tetuan is alike interesting to the ornitho- 

 logist and favourable to the sportsman ; about Martine are 

 some fine marshes, while beyond Cape Negro, towards Ceuta, 

 is a large, irregularly shaped, shallow laguna, called Esmir, with 

 great masses of rush and sedge interspersed with tamarisk 



