302 BIRDS OP TUNISIA 



Description.— Adult male, winter, from North Tunisia. 



Forehead, crown, and long nuchal crest dull greenish-black ; stripe over 

 and below the eye, and patch on the cheeks dull black ; the rest of the sides 

 of the head and nape whitish-buff ; mantle grey ; back, scapulars, elongated 

 inner secondaries and rump metallic-green, glossed with purple on the 

 scapulars and sHghtly fringed with buff ; upper wing-coverts dark metallic- 

 green, glossed with violet ; primaries black, the three outer feathers subter- 

 minally barred with whitish ; upper tail-coverts bright chestnut ; tail white 

 on basal half, and black on the terminal half with a slight white fringe, and 

 with the outer feathers on each side pure white ; chin and throat white ; 

 breast black ; remainder of the underparts white, excepting the under tail- 

 coverts, which are pale chestnut. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black; feet lilac-brown. 



Total length 12-50 inches, wing 9-25, culmen 1-10; tarsus 1-80. 



Adult female duller in coloration than the male, with a much shorter 

 crest, slightly longer bill, and much narrower and less rounded wings. Mr. 

 F. W. Frohawk appears to have been the first to point out the great difference 

 between the wings of the male and female of this species. Some interesting 

 particulars regarding this, together with drawings illustrating the difference, 

 are to be found in the Ibis {Ibis, 1904, pp. 446-451). 



In spring the entire throat is black, and the plumage generally is purer, 

 and lacks the whitish-buff margins to the feathers. The black throat 

 is apparently acquired early in the year, for I have a specimen from Marocco, 

 obtained on February 24th, which has this part almost entirely black. 



The Lapwing, or Peewit, is abundant in Tunisia during the 

 winter months and on passage, the bulk of the birds arriving in 

 October and leaving again in March. This species is more often to be 

 seen in the north of the Regency, where low-lying meadows and 

 marshy fields are plentiful, but is not uncommon in some of the 

 central and southern districts. In the neighbourhood of Kairouan 

 and near Kasrin I have found it abundant in the early spring. 



I have no knowledge of the species breeding in any part of the 

 Regency, nor yet in Algeria, where it is not uncommon in winter. 

 In Marocco, however, according to Colonel Irby, the Lapwing breeds 

 at the northern end of the lakes of Ras-Dowra, where he observed 

 three or four pairs of the species nesting towards the end of April 

 (Orn. Strs. Gib., p. 159). Though its principal breeding quarters 

 are further north, the Lapwing nests in limited numbers in Southern 

 Spain, and occasionally, though rarely, in some parts of Northern 

 Italy. 



The species occurs in winter in the Canaries, Madeira and the 

 Azores, though apparently it is rare in the latter islands. 



