200 



BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



way from our European bird, being generally found in small flocks 

 during the winter and early spring, frequenting the neighbourhood 

 of gardens, the outskirts of oases, and similar localities where bushes 

 are abundant, and feeding on seeds and berries of various kinds, as 

 well as on corn during the autumn months. Its song, a mere twitter, 

 is distinctly poor, although capable of development when the bird 

 is kept in captivity, as it often is in Tunis. When brought up from 

 the nest it becomes very tame, and I have a Greenfinch at the present 

 moment which will perch on my hand and take seed from my lips 

 with perfect fearlessness. The nest of L. c. aurantiiventris may be 

 found in orchards or olive-groves, as well as in the wild thuja and 

 juniper bushes, so plentiful on some of the Atlas slopes. It is rather 

 loosely built of bents and rootlets, lined with wool and hair, and its 

 eggs, four or five in number, are greenish-white, slightly streaked 

 and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with violet and brown. Average 

 measurements 20 X 14 mm. 



The accomjDanying plate shows an adult male and female of the 

 North-west African Greenfinch, obtained in the month of March in 

 South Tunisia. 



COCCOTHRAUSTES COCCOTHRAUSTES (Linnsus). 

 HAWFINCH. 



Loxia coccothraustes, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 299 (1766). 

 Coccothraustes coccothraustes, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Avium, i, p. 506 



(1850) ; Sharpc, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xii, p. 37. 

 Coccothraustes Yulgaris, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. 1, p. 140 (1867); 



Koenig, J. /. 0. 1888, p. 233 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, p. 54 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 



1896, p. 95. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Gbardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Forehead pale buff, becoming yellowish-brown on the crown and sides 

 of head ; lores, narrow frontal line, circle of feathers round the eyes, chin 

 and upper throat jet-black; nape and sides of neck grey; back and scapulars 

 chocolate-brown, rump fawn-brown, becoming yellowish-brown on the upper 

 tail-coverts; quills black, with a large white spot on the inner web, and 

 tipped with metallic shades of blue, green and purple ; the fifth and adjoining 

 inner quills with a pecuhar hook-shaped tip ; outer and greater wing-coverts 



