Another bird, according to their folklore, warns the nomad of the presence of snakes. This is Tagishit Aschiel, the Lesser Rufous Warbler, which spends most of its time about the kind of tangled undergrowth that snakes are given to frequent.
“Whenever Tagishit Aschiel detects a snake he will cry out vigorously and constantly, so that from our hut doors we may hear him, and run out and find the vile reptile; which we are glad to kill, for we fear them about our encampments.”
Yet another bird of warning is: Agishit n’Ugur: the large Yellow Barbet, which is: “The Jackal Bird; because whenever it sees a Jackal it gives out a loud rilling call, and makes a great to-do until the enemy of our flocks is driven away.”
Ashara, the Rufous-breasted Starling, is: “The bird of omen of death, because when it is heard in the evening or at night making a noise resembling the tearing of robes for a shroud, it is likely that on the morrow we shall hear that one of our people has died.”
Zunkusharat, the great Curve-billed Desert Lark: “An evil bird of which all nomads teach their children to beware, because of its alluring habit of flying only a short distance before resettling. Unwary boys think they can catch it easily and are thus led away into the desert without watching where they go; until they are lost.”
Ebakorian-Mallam is a name sometimes applied to the Buff Saharan Lark, the latter part of the name being Hausa, meaning scholar or teacher or priest. “For it is a saintly bird that is always at peace, and robs no one. It is content with the seeds by the wayside, and disturbs neither cultivation nor place of dwelling.”
Bi-Allah. The tiny Red Senegal Waxbill, is “The bird of perpetual content. All day it picks about the doorstep and roosts in the lintel; and all our people know it as emblematic of peace and unconcern, and so have termed it ‘the tiny priest of God.’”
Tedabear Takleet, the Palm Dove, is smaller than the Grey Dove, and, when both happen to be feeding or drinking together, the larger dove domineers the smaller. Takleet means slave, and therefore, in Tuareg folklore, “the Palm Dove is the slave of the Grey Dove.”
Tilel, the Guinea Fowl, has a curious legend concerning it which has arisen because of the blood-red wattles on the head. “See, he is marked by the blow where man hit him, because he would not show people place of water. And ever since that time he has been a dazed fool bird, so that anyone is able to catch him in the trees.”
The outcome of prolonged research in the Sahara during 1919 and 1920, and again in 1922 and 1923, was that altogether 134 different species and subspecies of birds were collected for Lord Rothschild from the Sahara, and seventy-three additional varieties from the Western Sudan.