BOW. 67 



here found several dealers with loads of the oblong 

 blocks of salt used by the Abyssinians instead of small 

 change. 



On reascending from the vaUey at Mai Makdam, basalt 

 is seen in a hUl east of the road. A very much larger 

 mass occurs close to Dolo, and the greater part of the 

 rock over which the road descends into the valley at the 

 camping-ground consists of it. The first knoll has the 

 appearance of resting on the limestone, but the second is 

 of such thickness that if regularly interstratified it would 

 be seen on the hills around. It is probably an intrusive 

 mass. 



At Dolo I found Lieut. St. John busily engaged 

 in putting up the telegraph. He gave me one or two 

 birds which I had not myself found, amongst them the 

 little Abyssinian bustard, or, as Indian sportsmen very 

 naturally called it, floriken [Otis melanogaster). It is a 

 Httle larger than the common floriken of Southern India 

 (0. aurita), but has very similar habits, living amongst 

 bushes and high grass, usually crouching and seeking to 

 hide when approached. As in the Indian bird, the male 

 of this little bustard changes in plumage with the time of 

 year, the whole of the under-parts becoming black in the 

 breeding season. There are other small African bustards, 

 forming the genus Lissotis of some naturalists, which 

 exhibit the same peculiarity, and the close afiinity be- 

 tween these African and the Indian birds is very inter- 

 esting, for this type of bustard does not belong to the 

 desert fauna, and its existence in both countries is one 

 instance amongst several showing that the very marked 



F 2 



