4r30'E 42°00'E 43''30'E 
Figure 1 (left): A map of the Red Sea with the Farasan archipelago. 
Figure 2 (above): Map of the Farasan archipelago, showing the location of 
Qum m ah Island (The sfcic/y area). 
there may have been Marsh Warblers A.palustris, and among the Great 
Reed Warblers A.arundinaceus some Clamorous Reed Warblers A.sten- 
toreus may have gone unnoticed. Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collyhita were 
separated from Willow Warbler P.trochilus solely on leg colour, and 
thus some birds may have been incorrectly assigned to species. Two 
types of trap were in use: the Samus and the Mihnab (see figure 3). 
The Samus is a small trap (a metre high) made of dry mangrove sticks 
and usually used for catching lone birds. About thirty such traps 
were counted on the island. The Mihnab trap is two to four metres 
high and completely covered by a fishing net. It has a single front 
entrance. Much of the area inside the trap is filled with Araak 
Salvadora persica and other dry bushes or sticks. Children chase birds 
towards the entrance. Once inside the birds are grasped by hand 
through the back of the net. At least 350 such traps were found on the 
island. Similar traps have been used in Kuwait (Dickson 1939). 
3 
