NORTHERN AFRICA. 938 
(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 
oa 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 
Te 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 (QO. 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 flocks. 
* Zool. Illustrations, ii. pl. 71. 
