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LIST OF BIRDS COLLECTED AT RIO DE ORO BY 

 MR. E. W. RIGGENBACH. 



By ERNST HARTERT. 



THE biid-collectioii from Rio de Oro is as unsatisfactory as it can be. The 

 barren nature of the place necessitates a very poor avifauna, but we should 

 have expected more than this. We hoped that Riggenbach would be able to 

 penetrate farther inland, where no doubt much bird-life exists. Moreover, he paid 

 his visit to the Rio de Oro at the wrong time of the year. It is true that I did not 

 want him to go in winter, fearing that he might find so many migrants that the 

 collecting of them would prevent him from thoroughly investigating the resident 

 species ; but he certainly started too late. April would probably have been the 

 best time. As it is, the collection, besides being extremely poor in species, 

 contains mostly very worn birds — so much worn that the coloration can only be 

 seen roughly. 



1. Aedon luscinia (L.). 



1 J ad., 13. viii. 19U2. (No. 38.) 



In good, fresh plumage. Evidently not a resident bird, but a bird of passage. 



2. Hypolais polyglotta Vieill. 



c??, 27. 31. vii. ; (?(?, 11. 13. viii. 1902. 



Ail in worn plumage, evidently after breeding. (Nos. 29, 31, 33, 37.) "Iris 

 black-blue with orange ring, feet bistre, bill above coflee-brown with yellow edges, 

 lower mandible flesh-colour." 



Probably a bird breeding at Rio de Oro. 



3. Saxicola leucurus (Gm.). 



c? ad., 4. vii. I'jn2 ; c? ? , 23. vii. 1902. 



Both birds of the year, bnt one is still in its first plumage, while the other has 

 its full fine plumage like an adult bird, the belly only still showing feathers of the 

 first plnmage. 



1 i juv., 31. vii. 1002. (Nos. 21, 27, 28, 30.) 

 These birds doubtless breed at the Rio de Oro. 



4. Otocorys bilopha (Temm.) (? subsp.). 



2 ? ? ad., 10. vi. 1902. 



" Iris dark blue witli orange circle, feet lead-grey, bill lead-grey, under mandible 

 bluish-grey with darker tip." (Nos. 7, 8.) 



In very worn plumage, moult beginning. The wings and t;iils arc so worn 

 that they cannot be measured ; but apparently these Rio de Oro specimens are 

 smaller than Egyptian (Hon. N. (!. Rothschild coll.) and Tunisian specimens. 

 Males and specimens in better plumage are necessary to show if the Rio de Oro 

 race is separable or not. 



