THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 45 
I saw Ravens, Kestrels, Pigeons, Turtle Doves, and Hoo- 
poes, and other birds which I did not know, but we were 
pressed for time and could not collect many. I shot one small 
bird not unlike a Whitethroat, which I have no doubt was a 
Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspicillata). Canon Tristram 
calls it “the common and characteristic Warbler of the 
whole Sahara” (Ibis L, p. 417); but I only shot one other, 
and that was a female at Laghouat. Nearly every Terebinth 
of any size carried several nests, and the ground beneath 
them was white with the droppings of birds. As we rode 
along, the Desert Horned Lark (Otocorys btlopha) ran before 
us, and twice I saw a benighted Wryneck crouching on the 
plain. Here was indeed a glorious country for a collector. 
I kept a loék out for Ostriches, but never had the .good 
fortune to see any. “The capture of the Ostrich,” says 
Dr. Tristram, “is the greatest feat of hunting to which the 
Sahara sportsman aspires: and in richness of booty, it ranks 
next to the plunder of acaravan.” ‘To this I may add, that 
the feathers and the eggs are so highly prized, that they are 
worth more at Laghouat than in London. “A skin in full 
plumage is worth on the spot from 40 to 100 Spanish 
dollars,” ie. 422. Step by step civilization is driving this 
brevipennate southwards. Like the Garefowl of Geir fugla 
drangr (Adca impennis), its ancient haunts know it no 
longer; like that flightless bird, its appearance, its actual 
name will be forgotten, and in process of time its existence 
will become a matter of tradition to be talked about 
over the camp fire with the Roc and other legendary 
birds. So surely as the advancing hunter substitutes his 
express rifle for the firelock of the Arab will the Ostrich 
forsake the desert’s fringe and seek an asylum far beyond 
the country of dates. Does not its impending extinction 
in the country I passed over typify the decay of the Nomad 
in the Northern Sahara? 
About noon on the second day we came to water, the 
