from Morocco and the Great Atlas. 201 



Sahara Buntings, Buff-backed Herons, and hosts of other 

 birds all being common within the city walls. The numbers 

 of the Little Kestrel must be seen to be believed, as many 

 thousands may be observed on the wing at one time about 

 dusk. A pair of Falcons frequented the Kutubia, but at 

 their great height it was impossible to identify them with 

 certainty : I believe that they were Falco peregrinus, certainly 

 they were not F. barbarus. 



After leaving Morocco city Ave made for Agurgur — a 

 kasbah most beautifully situated on the edge of a precipice — 

 which we reached in three days. On the road I saw a family- 

 party of Bush-Babblers (Argya fulva), the only examples 

 observed — though doubtless they were common enough, — 

 and Spectacled Warblers {Sylvia conspicillata) were abundant 

 for the first time. 



At Agurgur we had the luck to find the Kaid away, while 

 the Khalifa was harvesting in the mountains some miles 

 off, so we got a capital start. After two days' rest and some 

 success with insects, we started eastward over the mountains 

 and descended into the valley of the Wad Nyfys, which we 

 followed up to Tsigidir-el-bor, a kasbah almost on the water- 

 shed, which appears to be very low here. The whole of this 

 valley was most interesting, and although watered by the 

 Nyfys I take it to be typical of a dry valley on the north 

 slopes of the Atlas. All the mountains are covered with a 

 thin scrub of arar (Cattitris quadrivalvus), lentiscus, and 

 juniper; and the river has a hungry look, running mainly 

 over stones with wide stony tracts on each side; it is full 

 of fish, two kinds of which proved to have been hitherto 

 undescribed. There is a certain amount of cultivation and 

 some very fine plantations of old olive-trees. 



Of birds there were many, the most noticeable being the 

 Kingfisher (Atcedo ispida), Grey Wagtail (Motacil/a mela- 

 nope), Little Ringed Plover (sEgialitis chronica), Stock-Doves 

 and Wood-Pigeons (both very common), Cirl Buntings, 

 Algerian Chaffinches, Great Tits, and Ultramarine Tits. But 

 I did not see the Atlas Coal-Tit here ; it apparently needs 

 a damp mountain-forest, at any rate in the summer. The 



