58 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
shores of France and Albion’s white cliffs are the migrants’ 
goal. Like a great tidal wave they press on, dropping I 
suspect a few laggards here and there, who, tempted by the 
water and rich foliage, remain and rear their progeny in 
these glorious Dayats. 
This is the country to which the Arabs apply the term 
“ Sahara.” I know it is the Great Desert which is so 
marked in maps, but this is the true “ Sakara”—the habit- 
able country which ends where all regular supply of water 
fails. Of course I worked hard with note-book and scalpel. 
Inter alia l procured examples of the Orphean and Subal- 
pine Warblers, Abyssinian Crested Lark, and Short-toed 
Lark. Canon Tristram and Mr. Salvin did not meet with 
the Subalpine Warbler, but M. Taczanouski seems to have 
encountered it freely in Constantine. Loche in his catalogue 
(p. 69) gives as its habitat—“Le cercle de Milianeh ;” but 
it appears not to be included in Germain’s “ Birds of Miliana,” 
a catalogue comprising 162 species. ‘It is an elegant little 
species. A cock and hen, shot at Bou-Noura on the 25th of 
April, were in perfect plumage. 
Mr. Dresser unites Galerida A byssinica (Bp.) the Abyssin- 
jan Crested Lark, with G. cristata (Birds of Europe, Part XX.), 
‘but I am sure that my bird is not the same as the common 
Crested Larks I shot in the “Tell.” I noticed the difference 
directly I shot it; it is a much lighter bird, with a longer 
beak. Possibly it may be G. arenicola (Trist.), but it signi- 
fies little, as Mr. Dresser with a sweeping hand has united 
them both with G. cristata. Matters are not helped by a 
discrepancy between Canon Tristram’s account of G. arenicola 
and M. Taczanouski’s. The former says, “ This bird may be 
at once distinguished from its congeners by its bill, which is 
extremely elongated” (Ibis, 1859, p. 426); but the latter 
remarks—“ Like the preceding species (G. cristata), this one 
is short-beaked” (Zoologist, 2582). 
My Short-toed Lark, Calendrella brachydactyla (Leisl.), 
