416 Hev. H.B. Tristram on the 



find that none of my North African birds equal it in the purity 

 of the black on the upper parts, nor have they the distinct dis- 

 tribution of colour on the shoulders and flanks, from which 

 Mr. Strickland defined the species. Yet, on arranging a series 

 from various localities, it seems almost impossible to draw the 

 precise line between the local varieties or species of this almost 

 cosmopolitan bird. 



46. RuTiciLLA MOUSSIERI. (Moussicr's Redstart.) "Zin- 

 zukh," Arab. 



This most beautiful and charming of all the Algerian birds 

 was first obtained by me in 1855, near Boghar, on the southern 

 slope of the Western Atlas. This is, I believe, its extreme 

 northern range in the western part of Algeria, and it has not 

 been observed, so far as I am aware, in the province of Oran or 

 in Morocco. But in Tunis it approaches nearer the coast, and 

 was there discovered by Mr. Fraser some years before Leon 

 Olph-Gaillard described it in 1852 in the ' Proceedings ' of 

 the Natural History Society of Lyons. It is an attractive little 

 bird, as well in its plumage as in its habits and song, partaking 

 of the characteristics both of the Redstart and the Stonechat, 

 between which it appears to be a link. In the northern Sahara 

 it is very scarce, but increases in numbers as we advance 

 southwards, being always to be found in the gardens and palm- 

 groves, and generally in the thickets of the dayats. In the 

 whole of the M'zab country it is abundant, and its lively note 

 and repeated cry, whence its name " Zinzukh," may be heard 

 about all the fruit-trees. 



In the male bird the whole under plumage and upper tail-coverts 

 are of a bright chestnut-red, as is the tail, with the exception of the 

 lower portion of the two middle rectrices; the head and back black, 

 with the feathers slightly fringed with brown ; white forehead and 

 line over the eye — broad white epaulets, and a broad white patch 

 on the outer webs of the secondaries. The nest is compact, com- 

 posed externally of sticks and moss, and internally of fine hair 

 and wool, placed usually close to the ground in a low bush. 

 The eggs, four in number, are of the size and shape of those of 

 the Tithys Redstart [Ridicilla tithys), but of a delicate white 

 suffused with a delicate greenish hue, unlike those of any other 



