THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 49 
Arabs rush up to it to cut its throat defore it dies, and I 
soon found out that they would never cook any which did 
not die by the knife. Of course they ruin everything for 
stuffing. A splendid Golden Eagle, which Dr. Tristram 
shot, was served in this way. The natives do not shoot the 
Doves, simply because they do not think them worth 
powder, which the French traders are not allowed to sell 
them under any pretence. They come among the houses 
and peck and walk about the tents exactly like tame 
pigeons. They were not then paired. Neither were the lovely 
Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster), many of which I saw irradia- 
ting the landscape by their beautiful colours. In their 
buoyant and graceful flight, Bee-eaters are not unlike 
Martins. Few birds surpass them in beauty as they glide 
nearly motionless through the air (except when a momen- 
tary rapid beating of the wings is necessary to gather 
impetus). Like a meteor they glitter in the sunlight fora 
moment and are gone, 
Berryan is a town of some 400 houses, surrounded by a 
mud-brick wall with a good many small towers. They are 
pierced for musketry, and have been used on various 
occasions for defence against the Chamba. The wall is 
surmounted by a fence of thorns, which serves as a favourite 
perch for the Pallid Shrike (Lanzus lahtora, Sykes; L. 
pallens, Cass.; L, dealbatus, De Filippi). Messrs. Sharpe 
and Dresser say they have never seen nestlings of this 
species, I got one on the 25th of April just able to fly. 
All the upper surface, which is grey in the adult, is ashy 
brown, faintly barred, the lore and ear-covets are very faint, 
as well as the other parts which are black in an adult, but 
the breast and underparts are the same, the beak in my 
skin is yellow. 
The loftiest building in the town is the Mosque; its tower 
is in the shape of an obelisk ; but what interested me most 
was the wells. In my paper read on my return to the 
E 
