Mr. J. H. Gurney, Jun., on the Ornithology of Algeria. 71 



Lyon/ 1853. With the exception of the zoological appendices to 

 Waguer^s ' lleisen in der Regentschaft Algier/ Tristram^s ' Great 

 Sahara/ and Harcourt's ' Sporting in Algeria/ the above are 

 all the works on the birds of Algeria which I know of; and the 

 following list, which treats chiefly of the habits of the birds I 

 saw, may be considered as supplementary to them. 



I include only those species which actually came under my 

 observation. In the few instances in which the birds were not 

 shot, they were seen so near as to leave no doubt in my mind 

 as to their identity. I think that in general the custom of 

 identifying birds on the wing, when visiting a new country for 

 the first time, is unsafe. 



By my father's advice, I have adopted the classification of 

 Gould's ' Birds of Europe,' inserting the non-European species 

 in the order in which they appear in the museum at Algiers. 



I have only to add that my best thanks are due to Dr. Tris- 

 tram, Mr. Salvin, and Mr. Sharpe for the assistance they have 

 rendered me in preparing my notes for the press, and to my 

 father for revising and correcting them. 



1. Gyps fulvus (Gm.). Griff"on Vulture. 



One Sunday at Laghouat, happening to be out for a stroll, I 

 observed twelve birds at a distance, which I recognized as Vul- 

 tures, circling round a mountain. When I got nearer I could 

 only count eleven; and while I was wondering what had become 

 of the twelfth, it leisurely walked out from behind a large stone, 

 at not more than fifty paces from where I was standing. This 

 was the nearest I ever approached to Gijps fulvus, though I 

 often saw birds of this species at a distance. 



2. Neophron percnopterus (Linn.). Egyptian Vulture. 

 Both in ascending and descending, the Egyptian Vulture 



usually flies in circles. Like most other birds of prey, it rarely 

 flaps its wings, but with pinions motionless, slightly upturned 

 at the tip, it scans the surrounding country from an enormous 

 height, receding rapidly from the eye, yet appearing to fly but 

 slowly. The nearer the ground, the smaller are the circles, and 

 the more lowered is the inner wing; in fact when about to 

 settle, the bird is nearly sideways, the point of one wing appear- 



