APPENDIX I 277 



mentioned was confined. We let him inside on one occasion, and 

 the result was a -desperate fight. The whooper is continually 

 ' whooping ' loudly. The Bewick swan's note, comparatively seldom 

 heard, is entirely different shorter and less musical, but both of 

 these birds have been a good deal excited of late by the presence 

 on the river of several wild birds of both species. 



February 22nd. Double-spurred francolins (Francolinus bical- 

 caratus). Six sent away. These birds are from consignments of 

 about twenty individuals, all told, received from Dar-el-Baida, or 

 Casablanca, on the Morocco coast, during the past year. I am sending 

 these three pairs to the Comte de Paris, via Gibraltar, to be turned 

 down on his Goto at Villa Manrique, Seville, where he has already 

 turned out a few, ordered by me from Morocco as a present to him. 



From all that I can learn these birds are extremely local in 

 Morocco, and although tolerably abundant in the neighbourhood of 

 Casablanca and Rabat, are virtually unknown at Tangier, Tetuan, 

 and Mogador. They are said to frequent thick covert in the neigh- 

 bourhood of water, to afford good sport with dogs, and to be most 

 excellent for the table. I have had a few before the present lot, 

 alive here from Rabat ; one of them laid several eggs of an unspotted, 

 pale, creamy colour, but would not sit. 



February 2$th. White-bellied nuthatch (Sitta albiventris, Mihi). 

 Three received from Jamrach. These birds, of which I had already 

 five, in all their habits closely resemble our common species, although 

 I fancy that there is a perceptible difference in some of their notes ; 

 they are extremely pugnacious, and I find it impossible to keep two 

 of them together. In some of them the chestnut on flanks is extremely 

 prominent, and very rich in colour, whilst in others it is barely 

 visible. Said to have come from Siberia. 



Small gallinule (Gallinula, sp. ?). Two received from Jamrach on 

 approval ; unknown to him and me ; said to have come from China. 



March 2nd. Cape barn owl (Strix capensis) laid an egg the first 

 of this year. This bird is the survivor of two purchased from Jamrach 

 in 1884. I only call it as above on the authority of the vendor. 

 It lays a few eggs every year. 



