39 
planted the waders, and only the delusive mirage, before mentioned, 
lloated over the hard mud. I saw, however, what I believe to 
have been three Flamingoes, and was assured by many persons 
that they are frecj^uently found dead here under the newly-con- 
structed telegrajjh-wire, as well as Gamja (sandgrouse) and other 
birds. 
I found Ain Oussera, which was the second stage, a very sterile 
lonely place. A muddy stream winds its tardy course before the 
entrance of the caravanserai, and some attempts had been made to 
cultivate the stony soil. Elsewhere, far as the eye can reach, 
nought but a scanty herbage clothes the plain, — a coarse kind of 
grass, to the height of two or three feet, (dilferent from what grows 
in the weds,) forming a bleak retreat for the desert wheatear, the 
dotterel, and the tawny pipit. Sans a camel, mm a trace of 
cultivation, the eye finds no relief. As the setting sun sheds a 
yellow glare over the treele.ss plain, and the shadows lengthen, one 
may speculate on the not distant period when troops of lawless 
Bedouins roamed over the desert. The Barbary states are now at 
peace, from the palm-shaded oases of Trijioli to the baaiars and 
gardens of INloorish Tangiers, and the Xoniad is brought into 
contact with the products of European civilization. 
I collected specimens of two rare larks here, — Galerula 
viacrori/ncha, (Trist.,) and Calendrella rehomlia, (Loche,) and of 
the desert wheatear, (Saxicola desert i,) which had not previously 
been observed so far north, also some calandras and common 
dotterels, (Charadrhis morinellus,) and the first hoopoe of the 
season 3 but I was not so fortunate as to get the cream-coloured 
courser’s eggs, {Cursoriiis (jalliciis,) which were here obtained for 
the first time by Dr. Tristram in 1856, having been previously 
unknown to science. 
Guelt et Stel another caravanserai, is situate in a pass near the 
seven mamelons, (which were just visible from Ain Oussera.) 
It is nearly fifty miles from Boghari, and partakes more of moun- 
tain than of the desert ; here I obtained several birds not in the 
Sahara catalogue, such as the ring ouzel, ultramarine tit, linnet, 
serin, goldfinch, Algerian chaffinch and greenfinch, which last 
was quite common. The water here was totally unfit for drinking. 
At Eocher de Sel the soil becomes more sandy ; a frost-like 
whiteness coats the plain ; but after passing the salt mountains. 
