8G 
DESERT TUr-MPETER BULEFI>'CTr. 
of tliese birds. They live almost so completely in tlic 
uninhabitable country around, that they arc ahvays joy- 
fully welcome, and listened for attentively when silent, 
dliey are as the melancholy voices of the desert, or as 
the Djuns of the solitude. ‘Vox clamant is in. dcsertoi’ 
The Desert 'rrumpeter does not appear frequently on 
the stec]) rocky liills, at least I have only once met with 
it in such a situation, and that was in April, 185~. It is 
much more partial to the black lava stream of the desert, 
which, full of gaping- rents and chasms, hardly permits 
a blade of grass to become green. It never settles on 
a tree or bush, like the Stonechat. In inhabited dis- 
tricts they are rather shy, yet where, as in Handia and 
nearly all the south of Fuertaventura, the silence and 
solitude of the desert is unbroken, they are very con- 
fiding, especially the young, which, when we meet with 
them unexpectedly seated on a stone, will peer with 
their little brilliant eyes quite into one’s face. 
They feed entirely, or almost so, on the seeds either 
of grasses, which are found like a mealy kind of bread 
in their stomachs when killed, or the oily seeds of 
composite and cruciferous plants, which they shell like 
other finches, by moving them most carefully backwards 
and forwards between the mandibles of their strong beak. 
They will also eat tender young leaves. They cannot 
long dispense with -water, and often must fly some 
miles daily to get it. Their presence in the desert is 
always a good omen for the thirsty traveller. I have 
constantly seen them flying to drink in flocks. They 
drink much at a time in long draughts, between which 
they lift up their heads. After drinking they are very 
fond of bathing. I have never seen them roll about in 
the dust like Sparro-ws. The breeding-time begins in 
March, and like those of most true desert birds, the 
