162 BTKDS OP TUNISIA 



Pipit to a great extent. It is, however, more shy and wary than 

 that bird and not so easily approached, although when disturbed it 

 rarely flies far. Its food is composed principally ol water insects of 

 various kinds and worms. 



Among the collection of Loche's birds acquired by the late Count 

 Turati, and now preserved in the Museo Civico of Milan, there is an 

 example of the Rock-Pipit {A. obsciirus, No. 17,649) labelled Algeria. 

 Loche himself makes no mention of this species either in his 

 catalogue of Algerian birds, published in 1858, or in his work on the 

 Algerian Ornis, published in 1867, but the species evidently occurs in 

 North-west Africa, though probably more or less rare there. From 

 Tunisia I have as yet no note of its occurrence, but it appears to have 

 been met with in Marocco, though Favier's statement regarding it 

 should probably be referred to the Water-Pipit, as already observed 

 by Colonel Irby (Orn. Strs. Gib. p. 110). 



l<'aniily PYCNONOTID.E. 



PYCNONOTUS BARBATUS (Desfontaines). 



DUSKY BULBUL. 



Turdus barbatus, Desf. Mem. Acad. Roy. de Sciences, p. 500, pi. xiii. 



(17S7). 

 Pycnonotus barbatus, (Irnn, IIand-ll.it Birds, i, p. 268, No. 3,926 (1869) ; 



Sluir2)e, Cat. liirds Brit. Mits. vi, p. 147 ; U'lii taker, Ibis, 1896, p. 93 ; 



Erlangcr, J.f. 0. 1.S99, p. 315. 

 Ixus obscurus, ^falherhe, Faune Orn. da I'Alg. p. 18 (1855). 

 Ixos barbatus, Lochc, Rrpl. .S'c/. A I,/. Ois. i, p. 288 (1867). 



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



Above dark umber-brown, deeper on the forehead, crown and rump ; 

 wings brown ; tail blackish-brown ; chin and throat dark uniber-hrown, 

 boconiing lighter on the breast and Hanks, and white on the abdomen, 

 crissum and under tail-coverfcs. 



Iris dark brown ; bill and feet blackish. 



Total length 8 inches, wing 4, culmen -70, tarsus -90. 



Adult female, spring, from Ghardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Resembles the male, but is rather browner and duller in colouring. 



In size it is also rather smaller, its wing measuring 3-85 inches. Soft 

 parts similar. 



