14 DE8EBT TRUMPETER BULLFINCH. 



This elegant bird is a native of Africa, and has only been known 

 to occur in Europe with certainty in Provence, Tuscany, and the 

 Grecian Archipelago. It is found however at Malta, the bird figured 

 in the "Icones Fauna Italica" having been captured there, and I have 

 a specimen sent me from that island by Dr. Leith Adams. It is seen 

 in the island from December to March, and its designation ''The 

 Trumpeter," is derived from its Maltese name "Trumbettier." It is 

 mentioned by Captain Loche among the birds observed by him in 

 Algeria, and is especially found in Nubia and Syria. In Morocco it 

 is recorded by Mr. C. F. Tyndhill Drake, ("Ibis,'' 1869, p. 152,) who 

 remarks it was so tame that it would fly into his room and pick up 

 stray crumbs from within a few. inches of the mattress on which he 

 was lying. He did not observe it anywhere else, except a few at 

 Mogador. The Rev. Canon Tristram ("Ibis," 1868,) states "it is not 

 uncommon in the deserts near Beersheba." A long and interesting 

 account of its residence and habits in the Canary Islands, from which 

 the following history is principally taken, is given by Dr. C. Bolle, in 

 "Naumannia," for 1858, pp. o69-o9o; and in Cabanis' "Journal fiir 

 Ornithologie," for 1859, p. 469, a further account of it is given by 

 Chalihl Eifendi, as it was found by him in the desert regions of the 

 north-east of Africa, on the banks of the Nile, in Upper Egypt, in 

 the oases of Nubia, where it occurs in large flocks, and in Arabia 

 Petrea. 



Salvadori ("Fauna d'ltalia") says: — "Its home is Upper Egypt. It 

 appears from time to time in Italy. Nearly every year some individuals 

 are captured in Malta, generally from October to March, (Wright,) 

 which is a very singular statement, since it appears that in this season 

 they ought to be going away into regions nearer the equator, and 

 before that towards the north. It has been said that it is not impro- 

 bable some may be seen in Sicily. Once it was found in Tuscany 

 by Savi, who, in a letter which he wrote to me, January 17th., 1869, 

 informed me that he believed he was the first to find it in Italy, as 

 in 1839 he took in the spring a fine male with lime twigs not far 

 from Pisa, in a place called Sagainaja. It lived for five years in a 

 cage, and was soon domesticated. Its habitual whistle was similar to 

 a boy's small wooden trumpet. It moulted regularly in summer, but 

 never changed its livery." 



Bonaparte, who had a living bird, thus describes its habits in the 

 "Fauna Italica." — "It was very gentle, placid, and domestic, and very 

 sociable with the other birds, sparrows, etc., which came round its 

 cage, picking up the fallen grain, and when they flew away it en- 



