A FRIG’S CORAL STRAND 395 
a month or more earlier than is their wont inland. Those 
first seen to-day (February 7th) were a mated pair, their 
dashing, erotic pursuit, in rapid turn and twist, with flashing 
“hoopoe-wing” and harsh grating note—followed by a sweet 
epithalamium — were charming to watch. Alas! I had to 
“ collect ” both at one shot while they were yet engaged in gentle 
Gulls in the Red Sea. 
dalliance ; and the same day found two nests, already complete 
save for the interior lining. Little “dug-outs” each, the site 
half excavated in the sand, half overhung by a starveling 
desert-shrub. Eggs would have been laid in each by mid- 
February, and one month later we found fledged young on wing 
In the coastal region, the crested larks are also earlier in 
nesting, having eggs by the first days of February; and a 
similar remark applies to the finch-larks ( Pyrrhulauda ). 
