22 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



mountains, but the sport is considered expensive, owing to 

 the number of beaters required. After duly inspecting 

 them, I remembered that I had come to Africa to study 

 birds ; and all athirst for unknown species, I ascended to 

 Fort St. Croix. 



Having satisfactorily identified some Dartford Warblers, 

 {Melisophilns luidatus) whose flight was very weak, especially 

 if there was any wind, I worked my way home by another 

 path, noting as I went along the Kestrel (Tinnuncuhis 

 alaiidarijis), the Black-headed Warbler (Sylvia mdano- 

 cephala), the Corn Bunting (Emberiza iniliaria), the Wren 

 (Troglodytes parvuliis), and the Grey Wagtail (Motacilla 

 siilphiirea, Beck.), flirting about by a ditch of water. Other 

 birds I saw in the distance, but enough had been identified 

 to show that the avifauna of Algeria was not so very 

 difl"erent from that of England ; however, on the hillside I 

 listened to a truly African bird (as I believe), the Dusky 

 Ixos (Ixos obsatrus). Its notes rang through the newly- 

 planted pine groves. There were three in the market, 

 which confirms my impression that the bird I heard was 

 the Ixos. It is said to have occurred in Britain. It is very 

 sombre coloured. I made notes of two species not in- 

 cluded in the late Mr. Drake's "Birds of Eastern Morocco," 

 (Ibis, 2nd series. III., p. 142. — V., p. 147,) the irrepressible 

 Sparrow (Passer domesticus), which I thought I had left 

 behind me in England, and the Barbary Partridge (Caccabis 

 petrosa), which flies fast and straight with neck outstretched, 

 making as much noise with its wings as our grey one when 

 flushed, and giving utterance to a shrill note or two. I was 

 surprised to see some in the town with their throats 7iot cut, 

 which the Arabs generally insist upon doing, for your true 

 Mahommedan conceives himself forbidden by the direct law 

 of the prophet to eat anything which has not died by the 

 knife. I afterwards got eleven eggs of this Partridge. 



There was a steamer to Algiers on the 2Sth, a distance of 



