3 6 *



More Notes jrom North- West Africa.



at Bone about three in the afternoon. This is a prettily-situated

place with a fine bay, but the town itself is modern, mostly

European, and not of much interest. Hippo, with its memories

of St. Augustine, was visited the same afternoon. Storks were

common ; I heard Corn Buntings and, at dusk, a flock of Swifts

were flying high over the town, but the "light was not good

enough to make them out clearly.


March 30th, took a short walk early by the harbour. A

few Black-headed Gulls, mostly immature, were flying about, but

some had the dark hoods of maturity ; a flock of Martins were

collecting mud at a puddle in the road, a few Swallows, Green¬

finches and Warblers; the cock Sparrows had black stripes on

the breast with greenish-grey crowns. Some Storks were heard

early, and one seen to alight by its mate on its nest near the

station, over which several Alpine Swifts were wheeling.


Bone was left at n a.m. and Tebessa reached late in the

evening. The first pait of the journey is interesting, as the little

line passes through fine gorges and rocky country; for some

distance the course of a stream is followed, then the high plateau

country is traversed, coveied with a low Juniper forest: views of

rugged hills are obtained, and finally the level plain near Tebessa

is reached. Tebessa was a most important Roman town ; there

are many ruins, including a perfect little Temple of Minerva, an

interesting four-sided Gateway and, just outside, the magnificent

ruins of the largest Christian Basilica in Africa ; the town is still

surrounded by a high wall built of large stones. All this part of

the country was new to me. The morning after my arrival was

spent seeing the ruins. I noticed a Black Kite ; at the Basilica

were several Moussier’s Redstarts and Sparrows, Swallows were

very numerous, they were nesting under the roof of the courtyard

of the little Hotel ; some lamps projected from the wall about six

feet up, each lamp had nearly always a Swallow sitting on the top,

they took not the slightest notice of passers-by, although they

were not above a couple of feet away. A few Irby’s Ravens were

outside the town, also a number of Goldfinches in the trees, I also

saw Greenfinches ; Serins and Goldfinches were in cages. In the

afternoon I walked to the ruins of what is called Old Tebessa,

about a couple of miles from the present town ; they are not very

extensive. By a curious round structure, thought to have been a



