( 297 ) 



14. Tring^a canutus L. 



2 6 ad., 1 <S, IT. 1'^. vi. 1002. (Nos. 12, 13, 14.) 



One of these is in a somewliat peculiar plumage. There are white feathers 

 with blackish brown markings rather worn; besides them, feathers for their greater 

 part cliestnut cinnamon, and not at all worn, looking like fresh feathers, while 

 white and brown ones are also sprouting. 



15. Numenius phaeopus (L.). 

 (? ad., 10. vii. 11)02. (No. 25.) 



10. Sterna maxima Bodd. 

 ¥, 8. vii. 19U2. (No. 24.) 



IT. Sterna cantiaca Gm. 



(J, 20. vi. 1002. (No. 17.) 



This, as well as the former, are not in breeding plumage ; the forehead white, 

 the nape and hindncck black and white. 



18. Sterna fluviatilis Nanm. 

 ? juv., 10. 20. vi. 1002. (Nos. 15, is.) 



That is all we have received from the " llio de Oro." Though it is a miserable 

 list, it seems to show : — 



1. Tliat Rio de Oro is not a place for any collector to go, unless he manages to 

 travel inland for at least a day or two, where he finds vegetation aud doubtless 

 some interesting birds as well. 



2. That the faunal character of these latitudes, though being practically the 

 tropic of Cancer and thus the middle of the Sahara, is cpiite palaearctic, not tropical . 

 Cf. Hi/polais ■poli/glotta, Saxicola leucurus, Upupa epops, Oforori/s hiloplia, Ilirumlo 

 rustica, Alaemon alaudipes, which are with more or less certainty breeding here. 



3. That the Rio de Oro, probably on account of its abundance of fishes aud 

 sheltered position, is a welcome home for tired and invalid migrants which are not 

 inclined to undertake the voyage to their breeding-places. Cf Oulcmia ni<ir)i,^ 

 Mofacilla campestris rai/i, and Tringa canutus, the presence of adult individuals of 

 which in this latitude is otherwise strange to understand in the month of June. 



