Oniitholoyy of Northern Africa. 291 



more readily than its congener ; nor will the report of a gun 

 drive it off for more than a minute or two. It hangs over the 

 Arab camp waiting for offal, and probably counting the poultry- 

 stock ; and as scraps of burnouses and coloured cloth are scarcer 

 in the Desert than in the mountains, it hangs about its nest, 

 which is always in a tree, the cast-off coats of serpents, large 

 scraps of thin bark, and perhaps a bustard's wing. Its home 

 is certainly the marine-storeshop of the Desert. 



15. AscALAPHiA sAViGNii. (Egyptian Eared Owl.) 



I once found a decayed specimen of this bird which had been 

 killed among some rocks by an Arab a few days previously. 



16. Scops zorca. (Scops Owl.) " Maroof Arab. 

 Scarce in the Oases. 



17. Athene numida. (Algerian Little Owl.) " Booma" Arab. 



Extremely abundant in all the Oases, and wherever the Date- 

 palm is found. It roosts by day in the dark recesses of the 

 Palm ; but the natives state that its favourite breeding-places are 

 down the wells, in the sides of which it burrows. I have ob- 

 served the birds descend in the evening into a deserted well, 

 though for the most part they fly high in the dusk, uttering 

 their monotonous, but not unpleasing note, well represented by 

 their name " Booma.^^ The light plumage seems to be acquired 

 by age, and the young bird is sometimes as dark-coloured as 

 European specimens of Athene nodua. I have on two occasions 

 found these dark- and light-coloured birds paired together. I 

 shoiild therefore have been inclined to doubt the specific distinc- 

 tion of the African race, were it not that in a large series of some 

 twenty specimens they are invariably smaller than the A. noctua ; 

 and the same remark holds good of a series of eggs from S. 

 Algeria compared with those from the south of France. The 

 largest skins ( $ ) scarcely exceed 8 inches in length. 



18. CoRVus coRAX. (Raven.) " Hh'rahb," Arab. 



Plentiful in the Dayats, where it resides in communities, re- 

 turning home to roost at sunset in a long file after the manner 

 of Rooks. It seems strange, that the Raven, so solitary here, 

 and which chases away its own progeny from its neighbourhood 

 (unless it be grievously belied), should be so gregarious both in 



