Mr. J. I. S. Whitaker on Tunisian Birds. 89 



day to sight-seeing in the town and preparing for our next 

 journey. I availed myself of tliis opportunity to search for 

 nests of the House-Bunting [Emberiza Sahara) in the Gafsa 

 Mosque, which seems to be a favourite breeding-haunt of 

 these little birds; but although I found several, some of 

 them apparently almost completely finished, none had eggs 

 in them. The nest of this species is a delicate structure 

 composed of fine bents, neatly interwoven, and lightly lined 

 with M'ool or hair, and is always placed in some crevice in a 

 wall. The males were now in full song. 



On the 4th April we all left Gafsa, I and my party 

 travelling westward towards Oglet Alima, thence to return 

 to Gafsa, and then to proceed northwards to Kasrin ; while 

 my second party went in an easterly direction to Tliala, 

 thence to travel north, and meet me again at Kasrin. On 

 the evening of the 4th April, after a very hot journey across 

 the Gafsa plain, we camped at the foot of the Djebel Sota, 

 and the following morning left again for Ras-el-Aioun. Just 

 before starting I had the good luck to secure specimens of 

 the White-rumped Swift {Cypselus affinis). At Ras-el-Aioun 

 we pitched our tents close to the Oued Seldja, which this year 

 had plenty of water in it after the late rains. The storms must 

 have been indeed heavy about here, to judge from the many 

 uprooted tamarisk-trees and bushes we saw in midstream or 

 deposited on the sand-spits, showing that the river must have 

 gone considerably out of its course. The tamarisks are par- 

 ticularly fine about here, and evidently of great age. In the 

 centre of a clump of these, a most picturesque spot, we 

 noticed two crosses lately erected to the memory of some 

 French soldiers who had died here last autumn, probably on 

 the march from Gafsa to some western outpost. Passing by 

 the Col de Seldja, a remarkable gorge through which the 

 river of that name flows on its way to join the more important 

 Oued Melah, we reached the neighbourhood of Oglet Alima 

 about sunset. I had hoped to have found the Coronetted 

 Sand-Grouse [Pttrocles coronatus) again here, the spot where 

 I found it last year, but was disappointed, not a single example 

 of the species being visible during the two days that I spent 



