230 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



He also met with the species as far north as the village of Feriana. 

 In Marocco also, as already mentioned, the House-Bimting has occa- 

 sionally been found in the open country, and no doubt this was 

 the original home of the species, which, like some others, has con- 

 siderably modified its habits and mode of living, and now resorts to the 

 neighbourhood of human dwellings, presumably on account of the 

 greater abundance of food and shelter to be found there. Arab huts, 

 with their hard-baked mud and rubble walls, seem to be particularly 

 attractive to these birds, which no doubt find plentiful and suitable 

 nesting sites in such roughly constructed buildings. Mosques also are 

 greatly frequented by the House-Bunting, and those situated in towns 

 where these birds occur are sure to be the resort of several pairs. 

 There would, indeed, appear to be a certain association between 

 mosques and F. saharm, so much so, that Mr. Aplin, when collecting 

 for me in Tunisia, used to say that he was never surprised on arriving 

 at a town or village icitJiout a mosque to find that there were no 

 House-Buntings, or vice versa ! In the fine Mosque of Sidi-Yacoub at 

 Gafsa, to which I have always obtained access without difficulty, I 

 found F. saharoi particularly abundant, and took several nests of the 

 species there ; I also shot one or two specimens of the birds with an 

 air-gun in the Mosque courtyard, a proceeding which apparently in no 

 way offended the religious feelings of my Arab guide, who took part in 

 the proceedings with the greatest keenness. I confess to having felt 

 a certain degree of compunction when shooting these little birds, for 

 they are so extremely confiding and unsuspicious, and I abstained 

 from securing more specimens than were necessary for my collection. 

 I was glad to find that the Ai'abs of Gafsa and elsewhere do not trap 

 this species, as they do so many others, and they probably look upon the 

 bird with feehngs of respect, although not considering it absolutely 

 sacred. In some parts of Tunisia this species, indeed, goes by the 

 name of the Marabout. 



In the towns and villages where it occurs the House-Bunting 

 seems to be absolutely devoid of fear, and will enter the open door-way 

 of a house with the utmost self-assurrance and pick up any crumbs 

 of bread or other scraps of food that are to be found on the floor. 

 The birds I met with in the open country, however, were much wilder, 

 in fact, they seemed to be decidedly shy and suspicious. This species 

 feeds on insects and seeds of various kinds, but like our common 

 House-Sparrow, it subsists to a great extent upon any scraps which 



