BIRD LIFE IN EASTERN ALGERIA. J 23 



perhaps the bluest plant in the world, at least I cannot imagine a 

 bluer one. It is an angular plant, six inches or a foot high, with 

 short, stiff, narrow leaves in whorls of three, developed into 

 spines. With the exception of the cluster of tiny inconspicuous 

 flowers inside the whorl, the whole plant is of a dark dull sky- 

 blue, perhaps a dark cobalt— a really fine colour, though peculiar. 

 A patch of these plants often colours a bit of the hillside as blue 

 as a patch of bluebells in an English wood. 



I saw comparatively few birds of prey. The Lesser Kestrel 

 (Falco cenchris) was perhaps the most common species, but I saw 

 also its larger relative F. tinnunculus. Egyptian vultures (Neo- 

 phron percnopterus) , adults in clear white dress with black wings, 

 were not an uncommon sight. They look very fine soaring in 

 the deep, but brilliant blue sky, their wings held straight out and 

 level, rather like a Shearwater's. Once I remember seeing a 

 great fulvous-brown Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulviis). The Black 

 Kite (Milvus migrans) I saw, but it likes rather to hunt near the 

 Arab douars, for the Arabs keep a lot of fowls. I have only 

 twice seen our Kite (If. ictinus) in these islands, and only once 

 in recent years, so perhaps I am not a fair judge; but it seemed 

 to me that the Black Kite is hardly so grand -looking a bird. 



Buzzards I never saw actually in Algeria, though I once saw 

 a pair (Bateo desertorum ?) wheeling over the hills just across the 

 frontier. 



Among the warblers the most conspicuous was the Rufous 

 Warbler (Aedon galactodes), which was numerous, the dry-bushed 

 hillsides suiting the bird admirably. It is a bold bird, and con- 

 spicuous both in manners and colouring. It is easy to watch it 

 in the breeding season, for if you sit down and wait anywhere 

 near the home of a pair, they will come to see what you are 

 about, and keep you under observation. It flits with an easy 

 flight on to some outside or topmost twig, and then on to another, 

 and so on. Its motions are rather curious ; the long, broad tail 

 is gently jerked (if one may use such an expression) upwards, 

 and slightly spread (the action is peculiar and very graceful) 

 while the wings are drooped. When on the ground the Rufous 

 Warbler hops like a Nightingale, but puts its tail up, sometimes 

 nearly erect like a Wren's ; its body is held in rather an upright 

 position also. You often see it on the ground. To sing, it loves 

 to mount to a fairly high perch, and I have often seen it sitting 



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