( 38 ) 



plumage these Ravens are nearly as blackish as C. c. (iitr/itfimis, but they can 

 always be distinguished by the slenderer, less arched beak, and the much greater 

 distance from the nostril to the tip of the culmen, and from tiie end of the nasal 

 bristles to the tip. By this character even young birds might be distinguished ; 

 in the si)ccimens in the Triug Museum the outer aspect of the wings is also raucii 

 more bhiish in yonng tingitunus, more greenish in niJIcoUix, but I am not sure 

 if this will hold good. 



Like other Ravens, these birds nest partly on clitfs, i)artly on trees. 



As I have said above, all desert Ravens from the Cape Verde Islands to Nubia, 

 and also those from Arabia, are the same; they extend even fartlicr eastwards, 

 but about the eastern limits and allied eastern forms we are as yet somewhat 

 uncertain. 



Tlie following measurements might be interesting : 



5 Cape Verde specimens have wings of 370 — 300 mm. 



(J south of Onargla (Graf Zedlitz iu litt.) : 394 mm. 



2 ? ? ad. south of El-Golea : 307, 368 mm. (all males either young or very 

 much worn, so as not to be measurable). 



3 ? ? S. Tunisia (Erlauger coll.j : 3T0 — 377 mm. 

 8 Nubian and Egyptian birds : 380 — 420 mm. 



3 c?c? ad. Lahadj, S. Arabia (Erlanger coll.): 302—393 mm. 



? Liihadj, S. Arabia (Tring coll.): 357 mm. 



S Aden, British Museum : 31)0 mm. 



E. Persia (Saradny coll.) : "(?cJ " 384, 395, 411 ; " ? ?" 4iio, 4til mm. 



But in Persia other gigantic birds occur, which I have united witli ('. corax 

 laurcncri; more material is, however, required to lix tlie latter form and its 

 distribution. 



[Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax (L.). 



None of the cliffs and mountains we came across in the desert are inhabited 

 by the Chough, and it seems not to occur south of El-Kautara, Djebel Amark- 

 haddou, and tlie Bon-Ghe;5al range.] 



2. •Oriolus oriolus oi-iolus (L.). 



Cf. Nov. Ziml. .xviii. p. 474. 



A very late migrant; females noticed in the bed of one of the affluents of the 

 Oued Mya on May <i, in the Ijed of the Oued Haret on May 8, and in the gardens 

 of El-Golea from May 14 td 10. Strange to say, however, we did not see a single 

 fully adult male. 



[Carduelis carduelis africanus (Hart.). 



We never saw a Goldfinch in the desert. Neither in April 1911, nor this year, 

 in June, was a single specimen seen, in spite of special observation in or near 

 Ghardai'a. Koenig {lieisen u. Forsch. Algerien, p. 127) says that on Ajjril 19th 

 Goldfinches were common in the oasis of Ghardaia, but I am afraid this mnst 

 be a lapMis calami, as we did not see any there, and at that time they must have 

 l)een breeding ; moreover, in the ornithological detailed i)art, p. 310, the author 

 mentions only the Ziban oases {i.e. the oases near Biskra) as the southernmost 

 places where he found these birds. 



In Biskra they are a breeding species, and we saw young birds late in June.] 



