BIEDS OF TUNISIA 



remainder of underparts white, washed on the sides and flanks with 

 isabelline. 



Iris dark hazel ; bill bluish, black at tip ; feet purplish-brown. 



Total length 6 inches, wing 3-90, culmen -55, tarsus -80. 



Adult female resembles the male in general coloration, but has the 

 black or dark parts less intense, these, indeed, being sometimes brownish, 

 while the crown-tufts and pectoral band are smaller. In size it is also 

 smaller, its wing measuring about 3-60 inches. 



The young are of a uniform pale yellowish-isabelline, without any 

 black. 



The English name of Shore Lark does not seem to be at all 

 applicable to the members of this group, which, far from being 

 denizens of the sea-shore and coast districts, are to be found, as a rule, 

 in inland and often in mountainous regions. A better and more 

 appropriate name for them is no doubt that of Horned Lark, or Tufted 

 Lark. 



The graceful little Desert Horned Lark, 0. hilopha, first described 

 by Kiippell from Arabia, occurs also throughout the desert region of 

 North-west Africa and Tripoli, though apparently not in North-east 

 Africa. It has been said to occur also in Southern Spain. 



In Tunisia the range of the present species, like that of Bham- 

 phocorys clot-bey, is confined to the more southern parts of the 

 Eegency, where, moreover, like that bird, it appears to be somewhat 

 local in its distribution, no doubt owing to its rather exclusive tastes 

 in the choice of the localities it affects. The most northern point 

 in Tunisia where I have met with the bird is the Metlaoui district, 

 lymg to the south-west of Gafsa and between that town and Tozer. 

 Here I found the species by no means uncommon, and secured several 

 specimens of it. Baron v. Erlanger met with this Lark on the 

 Phoum-el-Ghadamsi and in the stony desert region further south, 

 where apparently the species is abundant. 



In Tripoli 0. hilopha is most plentiful in some districts, and jVIr. 

 Dodson collected examples of it in various parts of the country. In 

 Algeria Dr. Koenig found the species not uncommon between 

 Ouaregla and Ghardaia, as also generally throughout the M'zab 

 districts, in some of which, indeed, it was often the commonest Lark 

 he met with. From Marocco I have no specimens of the bird, but 

 Mr. Drake states that it is found in that country near Babat and 

 Dar-el-Baida {Ibis, 18G9, p. 153). 



