AND ISABELLINE BIRDS. 267 



is from Marsaba, in the Wilderness of Judaea, and the female from Ain 

 Feshkhah, on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea. He adds in a letter 

 to me, dated 22nd of December, 1875: — "I used to think that the Ammo- 

 manes of Palestine might be separated from the African one. It is not so 

 ruddy in hue, but that is all ; and I attribute it to the fact that the sand of 

 the Sahara is of a ruddier hue than the Arabian. There is no desert-bird 

 which is more difficult to detect on the ground than this Lark. The adap- 

 tation of colour for concealment by nature has here reached perfection. 

 Very often the neighbourhood of a little flock is only discoverable by a slight 

 cloud of sand as they scratch and dust themselves. Confident in the pro- 

 tection of their garb of quaker drab, when the traveller nears them they 

 simply remain quiet; and it is only if he stops that they take wing. I never 

 heard them sing, though they carry on a rapid chatter in a monotone at all 

 times ; but then I only once came across the nest, formed merely of a few 

 bents in a camel's footprint. The eggs are as much paler than those of 

 other Larks as is the plumage of the parents. Their food seems to consist 

 principally of small sand-burrowing beetles ; and the species is strictly 

 confined to sandy deserts, never frequenting rocky districts or visiting the 

 oases and patches of cultivation." 



Comparing such specimens as I have at hand (three in number) with 

 the British Sky-Lark, I find that Ammomanes deserti has a peculiar flocculent 

 feather, extremely soft and beautiful. This appears to me to arise from the 

 circumstance mentioned to me by Mr. Keulemans, that the atmosphere is 

 filled with " sand-powder, fine as meal." He adds that he has seen " the 

 Egyptian Vulture seemingly of a bright golden-yellow, produced by the 

 dark brown sand-fog." The feathers of birds of our more northern clime are 

 usually hard, not having gone through the process of pulverization, if I may 

 use such a term to express the continual impression produced by blown sand. 



Mr. Tristram says (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 434), in his report on the birds of 

 Palestine, "Alauda arvensis, L., common in the maritime plains and northern 

 uplands in winter. Not observed afterwards." It is remarkable that the 



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