2576 The Zoologist— May, 1871. 



heard. Their breeding time, it appears, begins later here than in 

 Central Europe; for even the sparrows live in flocks during the 

 entire month of May, nor did we see any preparations being made 

 by them for nesting. The vultures only had laid their eggs by 

 tlie beginning of April. Besides the completed nests of Fringilla 

 spodiogenia, which, however, as yet contained no eggs, I discovered 

 those of no other species. The birds of that part are, generally 

 speaking, more cautious than with us : I observed that even those 

 species which are by no means shy, as Tringa variabilis, T. rainuta, 

 T. Temminckii, An thus pratensis and A. rufogularis, could never 

 be approached within gunshot. 



Neophron percnopterus, Savigny. — Found throughout, even on 

 the borders of the desert, though never in large numbers. 



Gi/ps Julvvs, Bp., and J'nllur tnonachus, L. — Both common 

 everywhere in mountainous districts, but most numerous in the 

 vicinity of Constanline. 



Gijpaelos occidentalis, Schleg. — Seen in many places in the 

 mountainous country, as in Mahuna, near Ghelma, in Ghemina, 

 about Constantine and El-Kantara; most plentiful, however, in the 

 neighbourhood of Batna, where every day numbers might be seen 

 settling upon the rubbish-heaps outside the gales of the town : they 

 drop down suddenly from the mountains to a slaughter-house half 

 a kilometre away from the town, and carry off thence whatever they 

 can seize. We made a stay, therefore, of several days amongst the 

 surrounding rocks; but Count Constantin Branicki was the only 

 one who succeeded in killing a single specimen. This bird, although 

 it is not particularly shy, is nevertheless a difficult one to obtain. 

 We saw the same species day after day in the neighboining as well 

 as in the more distant cedar forests. 



Aqiiiln chr//s(ie(os, Pall. — We fell in with this bird several limes 

 near Batna and in Bonarif. 



A. Bonellii, Temm. — Repeatedly met with in the mountains, and 

 still oftener in the desert. He gives chase to hares and houbaras, 

 of which we were more than once eye-witnesses. Once, in the 

 mighbourhood of the deseit-forest of Sada, we saw, in company 

 with Count Alexander Branicki, a female pounce upon a hare 

 {Lepus isabellintis), killing it immediately, so that a male bird, who 

 was on the spot in a moment, was prevented from taking his share 

 in the prize. On another occasion, dining a chase of houbaras by 

 falcons, we noticed that the latter refused to seize the prey ; the 



