359



More Notes from North- West Ajrica.



of the beautiful little Blue-cheeked species might have been seen.

Several pairs of common Wheatears were by a small stieam, the

cocks frequently flying a short distance up in the air and down

again. A sandy-coloured bird on a sand heap may have been a

Desert Chat. The soft sand was everywhere maiked by the

curious herring-bone pattern of the tracts of Scorpions; an

Arab youth dug one out of a hole about two feet long with a

stick. The Scorpion was only a little over two inches long,

it was of a greenish-yellow colour.


March 27th was spent in the train. Storks were seen near

Batna ; at Kroubs there were numbers of Martins and Swallows,

the latter nesting in the waiting-room at the station. The

Sparrows seemed to be domesticus, with a dash of Spanish blood

as they had a good deal of black on the breast, but had not got

chestnut crowns. Hammam Meskontine was reached late in the

evening. At this charming place it was a great pleasure to meet

Mr. Meade-Waldo; he told me about the birds he had seen in

the neighbourhood and, as he made a lengthy stay, he could tell

us far more about them than I am able to do from my flying

visits. The day after my arrival was most glorious, being ex¬

tremely bright and hot. I spent the morning by the hot spring

which runs through a charming luxuriant valley ; here I saw a

number of very brightly-coloured Algerian Greenfinches, they

seem much brighter than those I saw at Biskra. Swallows were

numerous, and I saw my first Alpine Swift ( Cypselus vielba ), a

fine mouse-grey coloured bird with a white undersurface crossed

by a mouse-grey pectoral band. Birds were very numerous, I

saw Hawfinches {Coccotlnaustes buvryi), the Algerian bird differs-

slightly in colour from ours, and has a rather smaller bill ; just

before, this had been the commonest bird here, swarming every¬

where in thousands. Goldfinches and Greenfinches were in

flocks in the Olive trees which grow abundantly in the vicinity ;

Blackbirds and Thrushes, a Blackcap, a Hoopoe on the grass

near the stream, Corn Buntings on the ground, Ultramarine Tits

in the Palms, from which came the unmistakable note of the

Senegal Dove ; I was interested to find this bird so far North, as

it is much more common in the extensive Palm groves of the

South, but there were plenty of luxuriant Palms in this warm

valley to attract the Palm Doves. A pair of Tortoises were



