Mr. C. F. Tyrvvhitt Drake on the Birds of Morocco. 147 



XII. — Further Notes on the Birds of Morocco. 

 By C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake. 



Since the publication of my former uotes on the Birds of 

 Eastern Morocco*, ornithology at Tangier has sustained a great 

 loss in the person of M. Favier, who died suddenly in December 

 1867. He was an intelligent and very hard-working naturalist ; 

 and though his studies were limited to the neighbourhood of the 

 town where he lived, yet during his long residence there he had 

 collected a quantity of very interesting notes, which were sold 

 after his death, unfortunately in my absence from Tangier ; and 

 on my return thither I was unable to procure them. This I 

 much regretted, as from the opportunities he had enjoyed he 

 had been able to remark many birds with which I had no chance 

 of meeting in the winter and springf. 



On my first visit to Morocco my observations were limited to 

 the districts of Tangier and Tetuan ; but I have since had much 

 greater opportunities of examining the fauna, having travelled 

 through a large extent of the country — that is to say, on the coast 

 from Tetuan to Mazagan, and in the interior from the town last 

 mentioned to the city of Morocco and thence to Mogador. 



The country along the coast presents a great sameness in 

 appearance ; the cliffs are usually low, and very frequently con- 

 sist only of a bank of sand-dunes. Inland the ground rises, in 

 some parts, in a series of plains backed by ranges of low hills 

 till the snow-capped peaks of the Atlas are reached, as is the 

 case to the south-east of Dar-el-baida and Mazagan. In other 

 parts more northward it is a pasture-country, a " rolling prairie," 

 as far as the eye can reach, with frequent lakes and marshes in 

 the hollows. The first lake of any importance that I came to is 

 that of Mulei-bou-Selham, so called from a Santon of that name 

 who is buried there ; and a channel has been cut through the 

 sand-hills which divide it from the sea. This was done by the 



* Ibis, 1867, pp. 421-430. 



t [Some particulars of M. Favier and of the work for the publication 

 of which he had been long collecting materials, will be found in the 

 ' Ootheca WoUeyana ' (pp. 1-3) as furnished to Mr. John Wolley in 

 1845.— Ed.] 



l2 



