Eev. H. B. Tristram's Notes from Eastern Algeria. 373 



ten feet in leugtli from the foot of the stalk, but which hckl no 

 promise of sheltering either Savi's or Cetti's Warbler, I resigned 

 all designs upon the feathered inhabitants of La Callc. 



The environs of La Calle afford more objects of interest to 

 the marine natui-alist, as it is the resort of many Neapolitan 

 coral-fishers, who form a considerable portion of the population, 

 while another source of its trade, besides cork, is from the pro- 

 duce of some very rich lead-mines in the vicinity. But as these 

 are on the frontier line, the workmen are locked up every night 

 in a sort of fortified barrack, and a guard is mounted at sunset 

 at the entrance to the mines, upon whom the mountaineers 

 have frequently made descents, and succeeded in carrying off 

 supplies of lead. 



The Algerian Jay [Garrulus atricapillus) and the Great Spot- 

 ted Cuckoo were my only captures on my way back to Bon 

 Hadjar, as I carefully avoided paying a second visit to the lions ; 

 but after resting a night with the hospitable Spahis, I detei-- 

 mined on a bivouac in the cork forest for the next day, as the 

 weather rendered a tent unnecessary, and forage v/as abundant. 

 We picketed our horses for the night in an open glade, and 

 slept comfortably under a cork-tree, in the branches of which 

 hung an Arab bee-hive. The collection of honey appears here 

 to be one of the principal employments of the nomads. The 

 bees arc not owned individually, but all those which settle in 

 the district claimed by the clan are its common property. To 

 entice them, one sees continually, hung up among the trees, hives 

 simply constructed of a large circle of cork about a foot deep, 

 and with an imperfectly fitted lid of the same substance slightly 

 fastened over the top. These hives are quite open at the bottom, 

 and, suspended from a bough, are secure from the attacks of 

 quadrupeds. Perhaps a third of those we noticed were tenanted. 

 The bees are never destroyed, but towards the end of the season 

 the Arabs go round, and, with heads enveloped in their burnouses, 

 cut out with impunity as much of the comb as they think fit. 



In this spot the Woodpeckers abounded, especially Ficus 

 numidicus and the Green Woodpecker of North Africa [Gecinus 

 vaillantii). This latter differs but slightly from our European 

 species, and seems to bear the same relation to it that ours does 



