174 Mr. 0. Salvin's Five Months' Birds' -nesting 



truth in the statement, that the Great Auk {Alca impennis, L.) 

 has ever occurred so far to the north ; but we have since learned 

 that the Grey Phalarope {Phalaropus fulicarius, Bp.) has been 

 obtained ; and it is probable that the King Uuck {Somateria 

 spectabilis, Leach), the Long-tailed Duck {Hare/da glacialis, 

 Leach), the Great Northern Diver {Colymhus glacialis, L.), and, 

 in small numbers, the Common Guillemot {Uria troile, Lath.) 

 may sometimes be fouud in Spitzbergen. With these additions, 

 the list of the birds we saw most likely comprises all the 

 feathered denizens of this solitary land. 



XIX. — Five Months' Birds' -nesting in the Eastern Atlas. 

 By OsBERT Salvin, Corr. Memb. Zool. Soc. (Part L) 



(Plate VL) 



As Mr. Tristram has undertaken to furnish a complete account 

 of the birds of Algeria, in which he will enter at length into a 

 general description of the physical geography of that country, 

 as exercising an influence on its ornithology, I merely in this 

 article propose, as supplementary to Mr. Tristram's more sy- 

 stematic details, to give a sliort account of those birds which 

 actually came under my own observation during the time I 

 accompanied that gentleman and Mr. W. H. Simpson in their 

 rambles through the Regency of Tunis and Eastern Algeria. 

 The five months referred to above comprised part of February, 

 March, April, May, June, and part of July in the year 1857; 

 and though the first five or six weeks were not actually devoted 

 to birds'-nesting, yet the time v/as spent in making inquiries 

 about breeding-localities, and preparations for our journey ; so 

 that the whole period may be said to bear reference to the one 

 object of the expedition. 



The city of Tunis was our head-quarters while in the Regency, 

 from which we made excursions to various parts, to Carthage 

 and Oudena in the immediate vicinity, to Sousa and El Djem 

 in the south, and to Bizerta in the north. None of these excur- 

 sions were productive of much, ornithologically speaking. Those 

 birds that were observed will be mentioned in the subjoined list. 

 A month was spent in this way, after which we finally started 



