( 518 ) 



a deeper black, occasionally males are met witli in N.W. Africa — see one shot 

 at El Kantara March 22, 1911, and one from the Moroccan Atlas, collected by 

 Mr. Riggenbach — which are fully as deep glossy black, but the l)lack tip to the 

 tail is always narrower in European birds. The females differ very strikingly, 

 the Euroi)eau ones being very much darker ; and it is strange that it was left to 

 one of ourselves to discover this difference ! 



In North Algeria this beautifnl bird is entirely absent, Imt near El Kantara 

 one can scarcely fail to see it during one's first walk, as it perches on a rock jionrs 

 forth its rich and pleasing song, and, after one or two curtsies, disii])iiears behind 

 a boulder or among the rocks. 



It inhabits only the bare rocks south of the Atlas, ami is found up to 

 considerable heights. It is absent from the desert, and in the far south — near 

 Wargla, for example, and in the M'zab country — is entirely replaced by 0. leucopi/fin. 

 Traversing the Atlas at Medea, one comes across (). leururd. at Boghari, where it 

 is common ; and one may see a few on the way down to Laghonat, but we only 

 saw a pair at Laghonat, and none farther southwanls. 



The nest is placed in clefts, crevices or holes among the rocks, and is always 

 recognisable by the great quantity of flat small stones leading np like a 

 pathway to the nest. It is astonishing how the birds manage to carry together 

 all these stones, and the object is not quite clear, though doubtless they form some 

 sort of protection ; Oenanthe lugens also carries stones to the nest, and several 

 Larks, such as Ainmomanes deserti algeriensis, do it in some cases. The nest 

 itself is a bulky structure of grass and rootlets, richly lined with wool, hair and 

 feathers. The four, rarely five, eggs we found near Biskra and El Kantara late 

 in Ajjril and early in May, but we took a couple of nestlings fully feathered 

 (though wings and tail were still quite short) at Biskra on Ajjril 27, and found 

 naked young ones near Boghari on April 2. 



The nestlings are extremely interesting, as they fully resemble adult birds. 



110. Oenanthe leucopyga (Brehm). 

 {Saxicola leucopyga auct.) 



Travelling southwards from Medea, Boghari, Djelfa, Laghonat to Ghardaia, we 

 were sharply on the look-out for this fine t;hat, which we had not yet seen alive; 

 and it was on the rocks north of Berryan, the first town of the M'zabites, that we 

 saw it for the first time. From Berryan southwards and at Ghardaia it took the 

 place of 0. leucura syenitica, which does not occur there. 



Thou"-h when seen from a distance 0. leucopyga looks very much like 

 0. leiicvrus, it is, in fact, a very different bird : the plumage is more jet-black and 

 glossy, the amount of black on the rectrices very different, and the sexes are 

 alike. 



There has been much doubt about the birds with an entirely black head and 

 those with a white crown being the same or not, and it has been suggested that 

 the latter are older, because some young birds found had entirely black heads. 

 There can be no doubt whatever that the black- and white-headed birds are the 

 same, and white-crowned ones with black feathers are found as well as black- 

 crowned with white feathers. There is also no j'roof whatever that white-headed 

 birds are (dder than others. That the few young birds found had all black heads 

 might be only accidental. The song seemed to us less powerful than that of 



