226 BIBDS OF TUNISIA 



visits their island once in every six or seven years, and perhaps they 

 are not wrong, as I have only known it occur once near Palermo 

 during the past six years. On that occasion a small flock visited ray 

 garden in the month of September and lingered there a few hours. 



The Tunisian Crossbill is probably to be found throughout the 

 greater part of the Eastern Atlas. Mr. 0. Salvin appears to have 

 met with it half a day's journey to the west of Kef, and found 3'0U(ig 

 birds just out of the nest on March '26th {Ibis, 18.59, p. 31.5). Dr. 

 Koenig also met with Crossbills near Batna in Algeria {J. f. 0. 1896, 

 p. 134), which presumably belonged to the present subspecies, and it 

 may also occur still further west. I have no specimens of the Crossbill 

 from Marocco, but if it occurs there, I should expect to find it darker 

 in colouring than the Tunisian bird, and very similar to, or even 

 identical with, typical L. curvirostra from Europe. I would here 

 observe that the fact of there being a resident race of Crossbill in 

 North-west Africa does not preclude the possibility of typical 

 L. curvirostra being found there also, on the contrary, I consider it 

 highly probable that the species occurs there from time to time, as 

 an irregular migrant, as it does in the adjacent islands of Sicily and 

 Malta. 



The Tunisian Crossbill is to be found generally in the Aleppo pine- 

 woods of the mountainous districts of Central Tunisia, where it is 

 resident, and in some parts fairly abundant. It may also occur in 

 some of the more northern districts of the Eegency, but I have no 

 knowledge of its doing so. I obtained several specimens of the bird, 

 both male and female, at the end of March, 1894, on the high 

 plateaux lying to the north of Feriana, where the Aleppo pine 

 (P. Italepensis) flourishes at an altitude of between 3,000 and 4,000 

 feet above sea-level, and where this Crossbill without doubt breeds, 

 although I have never been successful in finding its nest and eggs. In 

 1897 and 1898 I obtained additional examples of the species from the 

 same locality, including young birds of the year. These latter, which 

 were obtained in the early part of May, seemed to be about two 

 months old. Other localities in which I have met with this Crossbill 

 are the Djebel Semama near Kasrin, and El Oubira on the frontier 

 between Kasrin and Tebessa. On the Djebel Semama I found it at 

 an elevation of over 4,000 feet above sea-level. 



In its general habits the Tunisian Crossbill seems to differ in no 

 way from the common Crossbill, and probably its mode of nesting is 



