to the Forest of Marmora. 163 



kinds. This was the general appearance of the ground that 

 I saw, but I do not think that we penetrated more than about 

 ten miles into the forest. It was my intention to pay 

 other visits to this new hunting-ground, and I hoped to 

 be able to do some collecting there, but the state of the 

 country everywhere in the north of Morocco has become so 

 disturbed that it will probably be a long time before there 

 is any possibility of visiting it in safety. Hence this 

 short notice of what I saw in 1902. Birds were not par- 

 ticularly numerous ; most of the country was very dry, and 

 there was no great variety of vegetation. I was surprised 

 not to see (or hear) a Jay. Jays may be there, and they 

 are usually very quiet in the spring, but they are mountain- 

 birds in Morocco, and this district may have been at too low 

 an elevation for them. I did not see the Moorish Magpie, 

 but I have never met with it anywhere north of Rabat. Yet 

 the Great Spotted Cuckoo (Coccystes glandarius) was par- 

 ticularly common and very noisy, but, the time being very 

 early in April, it was probably only passing on migration. 1 

 never actually saw any Guinea-fowl, but we heard their 

 cries repeatedly, and were told that there were plenty of 

 them in Zair. I have received living examples of the 

 Guinea-fowl (Numida meleagris) thence, and also of the Two- 

 spurred Francolin (Francolinus bicalcaratus) . We heard 

 the latter call, but could not put it up from the dense 

 bramble-brakes. The Moorish Pied Woodpecker (Dendro- 

 copus mauritanicus) was extremely common in the forest, 

 but we did not see or hear the Green Woodpecker. The 

 Little Bustard (Otis tetrax) abounded in all the open spaces 

 on the outskirts of the forest, but we did not see or hear 

 any in the interior. It was different, however, with a 

 large Bustard (presumably Eupodotis arabs), and this splendid 

 bird was, to me at least, the most interesting object that we 

 met with. It was fairly common all through the forest, not 

 frequenting, perhaps, the thickest timber, but met with 

 everywhere else. I fancied that it rather favoured the tops 

 of the low elevations. It was surprising how this enormous 



