84 
CURSORIUS GALLICUS. 
[§ 3264. Two.—Ain Oosera, Algeria, 1865. From Mr. Tris- 
[ 
co 
tram. 
9 
While staying with me in 1865, Mr, Tristram told me of four w7/d Coursers 
eges, which had been offered to him, and asked me if I would take a pair. I 
assented, and the eggs arrived in the December following. He subsequently 
wrote to me that they were procured for him by a French official at Ain 
Oosera, a post on the route between Medeah and El Aghouat. The man had 
formerly been a subordinate of Commandant Loche, and was keen on Natural 
History. “ But I cannot recall his name,” continued the Canon. ‘He must 
be dead long ago. When I got my first eggs, I commissioned him to get me 
more.” 
The first eves obtained by Canon Tristram, and the first wild eggs, I believe, 
made known to scientific men, were procured in 1857, and were described and 
one of them figured by Mr. Hewitson in the first number of ‘The Ibis’ (1859, 
p. 79, pl. ii. fig. 38). They came from the same locality, but not necessarily 
from the same man. I believe that Mr. Hewitson was misinformed as to the 
bird always laying three eggs in the nest, two being the normal number, and 
he was also misinformed as to the eggs laid by M. Favier’s captive bird being 
smaller and of a paler colour than those laid by birds at liberty, for there is 
really no difference in size or tint of the least importance. | 
3265. 7wo—From M. Favier, through Mr. H. E. Hawkins, 
1866. 
Mr. Hawkins sent me a list which he had received from an Englishman at 
Tangier, from which I ordered seven eggs. When they reached me I found 
old M. Favier’s well-known labels on three. I believe, however, that they 
could not have been laid by the same bird as the others (§ 3263) were, 
though evidently by a bird in confinement. ] 
[§ 3266. ve—Canary Islands, 1889. From Senor Gomez, 
LS}: 
through Lord Lilford. 
Brought, I think, to this country by Sefor Gomez. | 
3267. TLwenty.—-Canary Islands, 1891. From Sefior Gomez, 
through Mr. Dresser. 
They are all marked in pairs, by Sefior Gomez, and apparently with care. 
I do not know whether any account of the great irruption of the species in the 
islands has ever been published. | 
