72



Mr. W. H. Workman,



A NATURALIST’S RAMBLE IN ALGERIA.


By W. H. Workman, M.B.O.U.


We left Paris by the morning train on the 19th January,

1903. The only birds seen on the journey down to Marseilles

were great numbers of Magpies in the fields about the railway.


Leaving Marseilles about one o’clock we steamed through

large flocks of what were, so far as I could judge, Common

Guillemots; after that my attention for the best part of the

twenty-six hours voyage was fully taken up with the rolling of

the ship, all the same I noticed a good many Lesser Black-

backed and Black-headed Gulls flying round. When about five

miles from Algiers, a small brown bird flew round the ship,

which may have been blown out to sea.


Next morning was beautifully sunny, so I went out to see

something of the birds which could be heard chirping from my

bedroom window. The Common House-sparrow was, of course,

in evidence but I thought he looked cleaner and brighter than

his British relative. Every now and then a pretty little

Warbler, probably of the Wood or Garden species, would fly

down to the long flower spikes of Montbretia, and peck off a few

of the insects inhabiting the flame-coloured flowers, which, by

the way, in this fertile land grows to a height of seven feet,

whereas at home it does not reach much over two. Some

old olive trees, well covered with ivy, were the home of a large

colony of Blackcaps ; such pretty little birds, rare with us in the

North of Ireland, they were here to be seen flying in and out and

fighting all day long. Behind the hotel was a rather badly-kept

vineyard which had great attractions for those butterfly-like birds

the Goldfinches, as Mr. Gurney, in his Rambles of a Naturalist,

very aptly styles them. They were alwa}'s to be found

feeding in large flocks on the seed-plants along with Green¬

finches, larger and brighter in colouring than our species;

Linnets, Algerian Chaffinches, Serin-finches, Starlings, Black¬

birds, Thrushes, Wrens, and Wagtails. At the maiket I noticed

Barbary Partridges, Quails, Woodcock, Snipe, Pheasants,

Woodpigeons, Green and Golden Plover, Teal, Larks, Thrushes,

and Blackbirds. In the Rue Constantine there is a fairly good



