48 Mr. D. A. Bannermau on an Ornithological 



especially just above our camp. A photograpli is given of this 

 barranco showing the type of country they seemed to prefer 

 (Plate IV. fig. 1). Water, though rather salt, was abundant, 

 and according to Herr von Thanner is essential to their 

 place of abode. Polatzek, on the other hand, found them 

 sometimes in waterless tracts of country. I seldom saw 

 them on the ground for long, but they would sit on a bough 

 of tamarisk, much as our Flycatcher sits at homcj and only 

 occasionally dart out to catch some insect or else fly on to 

 a stone in the middle of the barranco, where they would sit 

 jerking their tails up and down after the manner of a Red- 

 start. They had all long since finished breeding, and in 

 consequence young birds in the speckled plumage were more 

 in evidence than the adults. They lay their eggs, according 

 to Messrs. Polatzek and von Thanner, very early in the 

 year — a bird having been taken on January the 15th in 

 which was found an egg ready for extrusion. The principal 

 breeding-time, however, appears to be March and April. 

 Such a complete account of the nesting of this species is 

 given by the above authorities in their papers, published in 

 the ' Ornithologische Jahrbuch,^ that anyone desiring more 

 information on this point cannot do better than consult 

 their works. I have placed my notes on the present dis- 

 tribution of this Chat under the separate heading Saxicola 

 d. dacotiie in the list given in Part ii. of this paper to appear 

 in the April number of ' The Ibis.' 



M&ny other birds inhabited this fertile barranco. Gold- 

 finches were met with for the first time and were common. 

 Brown Linnets, the males with crimson breasts, were also 

 plentiful and seemed to have a particular liking for the 

 prickly pear. They were breeding at the time of our visit 

 and several nests were found ; one, containing four eggs, 

 was composed of dry grass, corn-stalks, a plant something 

 like raw cotton, a few feathers, and lined thickly with a 

 species of silky thistle. Turtle-Doves cooed on every side, 

 and were just then nesting in the palms and tamarisk scrub ; 

 I found a nest in one of the latter bushes containing two 

 eggs which had only just been laid. A pair of Shrikes 



