Those on either side of the main road are
possibly not quite such
good bird resorts as the pans to the
south-westward of Sheikh Othman; the
road to these leads out between the houses
of the main street near its northern
end, but does not look like a through road
until the houses are left behind,
when course can be shaped for the
conspicuous high banking of the aqueduct.
This carries the sea-water from the
pumping-stadon of the salt works to
the most inland pans where the first stage
of evaporation is carried out: it
is then pumped from one series of pans to
another, becoming stronger brine
at each stage, until the salt at last
crystallizes out in the pans round the
works. These are not so picturesque as the
older works near the main road,
as the pumps are driven by small oil
engines in tin sheds instead of by
windmills with canvas sails spread on
wooden lattice frames.
The outstanding birds of the salt-pans are
the Flamingos. Rosy-white,
in flocks of from five to fifty, they
stride slowly through the shallow brine,
stepping high and feeding on brine-shrimps
and molluscs, or pause medita-
tively on one pink leg. It is impossible
to get within photographic range
of them without the most elaborate
precautions, for they are as wary as
geese. It is worth getting as close as
possible to make them rise, and see
the sudden change to the black and
brilliant scarlet of the under side of
their wings: a Hock flying close overhead,
with their long legs stretched
as far out behind as their heads are in
front, is a sight long to be remembered
