NORTHERN AFRICA. $3 



(130.) The birds of Northern Africa, taken collectively,, 

 present but a barren field to the ornithologist : the arid 

 soil and treeless deserts sufficiently account for the 

 paucity of these beings, whose sustenance is drawn from 

 the insect and the vegetable kingdoms. It is generally 

 supposed that the greater part of our summer migratory 

 birds retire to Western Asia and Northern Africa at the 

 approach of winter ; and hence it may be naturally in- 

 ferred, that no great difference exists between the or- 

 nithology of the two shores of the Mediterranean. But 

 as the heat of Africa is so much greater, so do we find 

 an increase in the number of those birds whose province 

 it is to remove putrid matter : hence the number of 

 vultures and of cranes spread over this country, whose 

 services are appreciated and rewarded by the care or 



veneration of the in- 

 habitants. Among 

 these, the Neophron 

 percnopterus of Sa- 

 vigny, or Pharaoh's 

 vulture (fig. 39.), is 

 one of the most com- 

 mon. It is rather 

 larger than a crow, 

 with a white plumage and black wings; the bill is 

 remarkably slender. For the rest, the only bird of 

 considerable beauty is the Barbary shrike (Mala- 

 conotus barbarus Sw.*) ; also interesting, as showing us 

 the most northern range of this African genus. The 

 sacred ibis of the ancients, long confounded with 

 some European birds of the same family, is now as- 

 certained to be unknown beyond Egypt. The Arabian 

 bustard differs from that of Europe (O. tarda L.), and 

 is of a small size ; but the quail is of the same species 

 as that which annually visits the south of Europe in 

 such immense flecks. 



* Zool. Illustrations, il pi. 71. 



