( 550 ) 



We saw three near Ghardaia on April 22, 1011, two of whiili we shot. We 

 found the iris very dark brown, bill and feet pure black. 



[A small Tern was seen, bnt not definitely identified, near Bordj 8aada, sontli 

 of Biskra, on April 21, 1909.] 



220. Larus argeutatus cachinnans I'm 11. 

 In winter these Gulls could be seen daily in Algiers Harbour and along the 

 coast. 



[As we did no sea-shooting, no Procellariidae were collected, bnt Levantine 

 Shearwaters were seen from the steamer when approaching the Algerian coast in 

 winter, and while leaving it in June.] 



230. Podlceps ruficoUis ruficoUis (Pall.). 



(Podiceps Ji)iri((t)lis auct.) 



Seen and shot on Lake Fetzara, on February 9, 1911. 

 [Podiceps nigricollis was seen the same day, bnt not obtained.] 



Ostriches mnst have been very numerous at one time in the Algerian desert, 

 because pieces of egg-shells are frequently found in the sand districts between 

 Tonggourt and El Oned, and also between Touggourt and Wargla. While picking 

 up some of these, about twenty-two miles east of Tonggourt, Hartert took also 

 three pieces of a very much thicker egg-shell of a much browner colour. As soon 

 as Rothschild saw them he said they must belong to an extinct large Strnthionid 

 bird. Being too busy with other urgent things, we handed these fragments over to 

 Mr. C. W. Andrews, who also came to the conclusion that they must belong to 

 an unknown extinct large Struthious bird, and named them 



Psammomis rothschildi. 



See BeriM liber den V. Intern. Orii. Kotujress, pp. 150 aad lG'.»-73. 



This bird must have been of gigantic proportions, and probably several other 

 species of the genus Psammomis Andrews have existed in the Sahara, because 

 Erlanger and Hilgert found many fragments of large egg-shells in the South 

 Tunisian desert, and this year Hilgert picked up quite a number on the sand 

 among the tamarisk-bushes hardly twenty miles south of Biskra, which appear to 

 be rather different from the type-fragments of P. rothschildi. We have handed 

 them also over to Mr. Andrews, who has promised to examine them carefully and 

 to give us his o])inion about them before long. 



The recent Ostrich, Strnthio camelns, is no longer found in Algeria proper. 

 where Tristram still found it, and apparently not over rare, between Ghardaia and 

 Touggourt — on the Oued N'<;a among other places. 



It has long ago disappeared from there, but we have been told that it 

 is still found not very far south of In Salah, in the centre of the Sahara. 



