396 Mr. D. A. Bannerman : First Impressions [Ibis, 



The Southern Little Owl is abundant throughout Tunisia, 

 frequenting both the olive-groves of the north and the 

 deserts of the south. Unlike the Scops Owl (Otus scoj^s 

 scops), which we did not meet with, but which, according to 

 Y/Hiitaker, is found frequently nfter the end of March, the 

 Little Owl is often to be seen in the day-time, as I had 

 already proved for myself. 



From the minaret of the Great Mosque a magnificent 

 view of the surrounding country is obtained, and we then 

 realised how isolated this once sacred town really is. On all 

 sides stretched the great plain, not reddish or golden as the 

 Sahara, but uniformly brown save where the crops were 

 shooting through the sunburnt soil, stony in nature and 

 partially covered with plant-growth or camel-grass. This 

 was unquestionably the country of the Crested Lark, and, 

 indeed, save for an occasional Hawk or Harrier, the land- 

 scape was otherwise singularly devoid of bird-life. 



The Crested Larks of Tunisia have been dealt with at 

 length by Mr. Whitaker in his book, and the members 

 of the genus found in Algeria have been Veviewed by 

 Dr. Hartert in Nov. Zool. xviii. 1912, pp. 488-496. 



Of the long-billed form G. cristata, Whitaker recognises 

 only two subspecies, arenicola (a pale race) and macrorliyncha 

 (a darker race), but he does not give the exact range of these 

 two forms in the Regency : macrorliyncha^ he notes, inhabits 

 country where " plains and large tracts of level country 

 appear .... and where plains adjoin or are not far distant 

 from mountains"; arenicola, on the other hand, is said by 

 Whitaker to be confined to the inland semi-desert districts 

 of the centre and south of the Regency, not extending north 

 of the Atlas, or even (as far as he was aware) to the sea- 

 coast" — Whitaker found it plentiful on the plains west of 

 Gafsa and on the dry salt marshes of the Chott district. 



Since Whitaker published his book_, Kleinschmidt and 

 Hilgert have turned their attention to the long-billed Crested 

 Larks of Tunisia, naming, between them, three forms. 

 They showed that the bird which Whitaker referred to as 

 macrorhynclia from northern Tunisia was distinct from the 



