( 70 ) 

 123. *Colymbus ruficoUis i-uficollis Tall. 



Cf. X'ir. Znul. .xviii. p. .'i.Vl, nn. '2:',0 ; Ihunll. llnl. II. p. 158, no. MO. 



Hilgert saw oiio or two on tla- Lake of El-(iolea on Jlay l."i. 



[Alcatorda L. 



Cf. Loche, A'.//)/. S'.vV/i/. Algh-ie, Oh. ii. p. 210. 



The KaJiorbiil is rare on the Algerian coast, but M. Andre Tli^ry .shot two 

 spooiincns oil" Sidi Ferrucli, near Alger, in January 1011, which his son kindly 

 presented to ns.] 



124. Struthio camelus L. 



The Ostrich has entirely <lisai)peared from Algeria. The dates of its extinction 

 do not ai)])ear to be known. I liave been told that a book by the late General 

 Margnerite, entitled Mc.f ^//rt.v.s/'.f I'n Alyirie, contains interesting notes on the 

 destruction of the Ostriches on the " Hants Plateanx,'" bnt so far I have not been 

 able to see this book. 



In Tristram's time (i.r. .")4 years ago) the Ostrich was still common near 

 Tilrhcinpt, which a]ipears to have been one of its prinei[)al and last strongholds in 

 Algeria ; and on the Cued N(;a, east of Ghardaia, where — apparently at the present 

 Hassi Rebib— the Addax nasomacultta was also seen at that time. At that time it 

 seems also to liave lived between Onargla and Tonggonrt. 



At the present day only pieces of egg-shells may be fiinnd in Algeria and in all 

 the desert, as far as we have visited it. It is (piite certain that no ostrich has lived 

 for some time back even as far south asTidikelt ; and, according to information from 

 M. Brand at Iii-Salah, it is now even absent from Air (Asben), and not fonnd north 

 of Damerglin, aliont half-way between Air and Kano, where it still aboniids. While 

 we were at lOl-Oolea, two ostriches were brought tliere and taken to Ghardaia ; they 

 came from Timbuctu, I was told. 



Another i|nestion is : were ostriches ever fonnd in the bare Erg or in all the 

 country south of Onargla, where vegetation is absent, scarce, or intermittent, as in 

 the Oued Mya ? Can the pieces of egg-shells that we find at present be taken as an 

 indication of their former occurrence ? 



AVe have found egg-shells from the sands between Onraach and Mouleina (near 

 P.lskra) and the sands between El-Oned and Tonggonrt to El-Meksa and the Erg- 

 beut-Ciuxouli, and also some at Foggaret-es-Zoua, the northernmost of the Tidikelt 

 oases. 



What struck us, however, was the fact that they were nearly always found in 

 the depressions, which contained wells, and which are probably very ancient resting- 

 places of caravans. 1 do not doubt that wells have been in mnch the same places, 

 and caravans have rested there 2iiii(i years ago, as they do nowadays, because the 

 nature of the country demands it : and together with eggs of the present Ostrich are 

 found those of P.mmmon/is rothsrlillili, the extinct Giant Ostrich, and also, sometimes, 

 l)ierc.ed pieces of shells used for necklaces and jiieces of Hint-implements, mostly 

 little spear-heads. 



There is little indication of the age of these egg-fragments, and whether those 

 I'omid together with flint implements are of a similar age to the latter : bnt probably 



