PASSERINE BIRDS. 99 



with a reddish tinge produced by the red-coloured borders of the feathers. The large wing-covers are 

 pale brown, edged with bright rose colour, and carmine red on the outer web. The female is of a 

 brownish grey over the whole of the upper part of the body, and on the lower parts light grey marked 

 with red ■ the belly is of a dirty white." Those who would become acquainted with the home of this 

 species must wander into the desert to which it properly belongs. Bolle found it breeding on the 

 Canary Islands, principally upon the most eastern, namely Lanzarote, Fuerta-ventura, and the Great 

 Canary. We ourselves have met with it all over the greater part of Upper Egypt and Nubia, as far 

 even as the Steppes, where it entirely disappears. We also found it in the desert parts of Arabia. 

 From these regions this bird has been known to reach the Greek Islands, and even Provence and 

 Tuscany. In Malta it may frequently be seen during the winter. The places frequented by the 

 Desert Trumpeter are barren spots exposed to the hottest rays of the sun; it prefers arid and 

 stony places, where scorching heat blazes down upon the burning rock, and seems to luxuriate in 

 glare and dazzling brightness that are perfectly blinding to the traveller upon these treeless wastes. 

 The favourite haunts of the Desert Trumpeter yield but few blades of parched, dry grass, and the 

 stunted shrubs to please its taste must be few and far between. On such a spot it delights 

 to dwell, hopping from stone to stone, or gliding along near the ground on noiseless wings. It is 

 seldom possible to follow the course of this bird to any distance, for the reddish grey of its plumage 

 blends as perfectly with the surrounding stones and leafless shrubs as do the paler tints of the young 

 with the colour of the sand, tufa, or chalk. To this difficulty is added that of the dazzling and 

 deceptive play of light so common in these deserts, which teaches us to appreciate the delightful 

 relief that grass and foliage afford to the weary eye. We should soon lose the object of our pursuit 

 were it not for its voice, which constitutes its most remarkable feature, and will prove our best 

 guide in this search. Hark ! a sound like that of a tiny trumpet is ringing through the air ; it 

 swells and trembles, and if our ear is acute enough we shall find that this strange clang is preluded 

 or followed by a few light silvery tones, which fall, bell-like, upon the desert silence, much resembling 

 almost inaudible notes struck upon a musical glass by an invisible hand. At other times the sound 

 it produces is extraordinarily deep, and not unlike that made by the tree-frog of the Canary Islands, 

 consisting of a few harsh notes rapidly repeated, and which, strangely enough, are answered by the 

 little creature itself, the second sound being produced by a sort of ventriloquism, and appearing to 

 come from some distance. Few things are more difficult than to attempt to render the note of a bird 

 through the medium of our alphabet, and in this case it would be particularly so, for the voice of the 

 Desert Trumpeter consists of tones entirely different from those to which we are accustomed, and 

 must be heard before it can be imagined. No one would expect to find a singing bird in such 

 localities as those above described, and the fantastic voice of this creature appears well suited to the 

 places it inhabits. The cry mentioned above is often followed by a succession of crowing, rattling 

 sounds, which, like its trumpet-call, seem by their strangeness so completely in unison with 

 the surrounding scenery, that we always stood to listen to them with pleasure, and wished to 

 hear them recommence. In such places as are entirely covered with moving sands the Desert 

 Trumpeter is never met with, as it is not fitted like a Curlew or Courser to run with ease 

 over loose ground ; it frequents the barren lava streams upon which not a blade of grass 

 could grow, and in such fissures and holes as these places offer it finds a hiding or resting 

 place, but is never seen upon a shrub or tree. In inhabited districts the Desert Trumpeter is very 

 shy, only seeming to have full confidence when surrounded by silence and solitude ; but in its native 

 haunts the young may be often seen perched close beside their parents, and when a traveller approaches 

 them they only acknowledge his presence by staring calmly in his face with their bright little Mack 

 eyes. These birds may generally be met with all along the rocky shores of the Nile, and from the 



