70 Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jan., un the Ornithologij of Algeria. 



We got back to Laghouat ou the 3rcl of May ; and as the heat 

 had then become so intense that no European could venture out 

 in the middle of the day without danger of a sunstroke, I left 

 for Algiers almost immediately, and thence returned to England 

 by the usual route. 



I will now mention what has been written on the birds of Al- 

 geria. The first work seems to be Malherbe's * Catalogue raisonne 

 d^Oiseaux d'Algerie,^ 18J6. The bird part of the ' Exploration 

 scientifique d'Algerie pendant lesannees 1840, 1841, 1842,' did 

 not app'ear until 1867, though some of Gen. Levaillant's plates 

 were issued so much earlier than the letterpress tliat Malherbe 

 was able to quote them. Loche's ' Catalogue des mammiferes 

 et des oiseaux observes en Algerie ' came out in 1858. Intended 

 as a guide to the natural-history department of the " Exposition 

 permanente " at Algiers, it was in some measure the founda- 

 tion of the two volumes of letterpress of the ' Exploration 

 Scientifique/ which were printed (under the superintendence 

 of his widow) after Capt. Loche^s death in 1863. A Swiss 

 collector has purchased his birds ; but his fine collection of eggs 

 is still to be disposed of. A year prior to the publication of 

 this useful catalogue. Dr. L. Buvry's " Mittheilungen aus Alge- 

 rien" appeared in the ' Zeitschrift fiir allgemeine Erdkuude' 

 for 1857. Immediately afterwards an important contribution 

 was made to ' The Ibis ' in the shape of an article by Mr. Salvin, 

 entitled " Five months' Bird's-nesting in the Eastern Atlas " 

 (Ibis, 1859, pp. 174-191, 302-318, 352-365), and others " On 

 the Ornithology of Northern Africa," by Dr. Tristram (Ibis, 1859, 

 pp. 153-162, 277-301, 415-435; 1860, pp. 68-83, 149-165, 

 361-375), who had successfully penetrated the Great Sahara, 

 where probably no European had been before him. These 

 papers are replete with information, and are illusti-ated by 

 plates of Falco barbarus, Saxicola philothamna, and Ruticilla 

 moussieri. 



In the 'Journal fiir Ornithologie ' for January 1870, there is 

 an article, which I have had translated, ou the birds of the pro- 

 vince of Constantine, by M. Taczanowski, enumerating 210 

 species ; and there is another on the birds of the same province 

 by M. Labouysse in the ' Annales de la Societe d^Agriculture de 



