40 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



of it have occasionally been obtained in Portugal, South France, 

 Sicily and Malta, and its capture has been recorded from as far east 

 as Dalmatia, and as far north as England, while Canon Tristram 

 states that he had seen a specimen of the bird at Jerusalem, which 

 he had every reason to believe had been shot close to that city (Fauna 

 and Flora, Palestine, p. 85). An example of this species obtained near 

 Trapani, in Sicily, as recently as June 3rd, 1898, is preserved in the 

 Palermo Museum. 



In Tunisia this Nightjar generally arrives towards the end of 

 April, and having bred, departs early in the autumn. Occasional 

 stragglers may be met with late on in the autumn, but I know of no 

 instance of the species wintering north of the Sahara. 



In its general habits, as well as in its flight and note, the Rnfous- 

 naped Nightjar resembles C. enropmns, although it seems to be quite 

 as much at home on the arid hill-sides, and among the dwarf-vegetation 

 of the south, as it is in the more humid districts and leafy woods of 

 the north of the Regency. I have obtained examples of it in spring 

 at Eas-el Aioun in the south, and at the foot of the Djebel Chambi, 

 in Central Tunisia, while, through Blanc, I have specimens obtained 

 from North Tunisia. 



A single egg in my collection, of C. ruficollis desertorum, from 

 Central Tunisia, obtained at the end of May, is glossy whitish-grey, 

 with large greyish-green shell-marks and a few large brown surface- 

 blotches, distributed evenly over the whole shell. It measures 34 X 

 22 mm. 



Family PICID^. 



DENDROCOPUS NUMIDICUS (Malherbe). 



ALGERIAN GREATER PIED WOODPECKER. 



Pious numidus, Malherbe, Mem. Acad. Alelz, 1842, p. 243. 



Picus (Leuconotopicus) numidicus, Malherbe, Ilev. Zool. 184.3, p. 375 ; 



id. Cut. lUiis. d'Ois. Ahj. p. 15 (ISJG). 

 Dendrocopus numidicus, Cab. & Heine, Mus. Hein. iv, p. 31 (1863) ; 



Hargitt, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xviii, p. 217; Whitaker, Ibis, 1896, 



p. 97. 

 Picus numidicus, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 79, pi. 9, figs. 1 and la 



(1867). 

 Dendrocopus numidus numidus, Erlangtr, J.f. 0. 1899, p. 530. 



