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from other species, even at the desert wells, at which it appears to be found in every oasis. At 

 the wells of Bahiuda it was the commonest bird, being even more numerous than the Desert- 

 Larks and Emberiza striolata. Near the confines of the desert it becomes rarer. I never saw it 

 in Central and Lower Egypt, and only once in Arabia Petraea." Dr. Leith Adams also writes 

 (Ibis, 1864, p. 23) as follows: — "Along the confines of cultivation and rocky situations bordering 

 on the desert, the clear tinkling call of the Trumpeter Bullfinch is heard, where often the colour 

 of its plumage prevents its being seen. It breeds among the old tombs at Thebes, associating 

 there with the Domestic Sparrow. In Nubia the Sparrow-Hawk may be often observed sweeping 

 around a cliff, with one of these birds in its talons, pursued by the loud lamentations of the whole 

 flock, uttered in their characteristic clear and musical notes. They begin to pair about the end 

 of January." 



In North-west Africa it is also tolerably common. Loche says that " it is only found in the 

 Sahara and the K'sours, being especially numerous in the M'zab from Ras Nili to Ouaregla ;" 

 and Canon Tristram writes (Ibis, 1859, p. 294) that it is "found generally dispersed on the 

 gravelly steppes in the north of the Sahara, but not in the sandy districts. In winter it is 

 gregarious, and may be seen in small flocks industriously searching under every stone or picking 

 the buds of the desert plants. In spring these flocks disperse, and retire to pair among the 

 lonely 'weds' and cliffs." Mr. L. Taczanowski also met with it in the barren hills of Algeria or 

 amongst the bushes in the desert, and observes that it picks up its food on the ground under the 

 bushes, and that flocks frequently disperse and reassemble. Mr. Chambers-Hodgetts records it 

 (Ibis, 1867, p. 103) from Tripoli, where he saw a pair. It is found in the Canaries, where, 

 according to Messrs. Webb and Berthelot and Dr. C. Bolle, it is not uncommon in Lanzarote, 

 Canaria, and Fuerteventura ; but Mr. Godman did not meet with it. Dr. Bolle writes (Nau- 

 mannia, 1858, p. 379), "it is to some extent found breeding at Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and 

 Gran Canaria. I found it distributed over the whole eastern half of Canaria, and think it may 

 extend further west. I observed the first in April 1856, on the road which leads from Ciudad 

 de las Palmas to the interior. I further observed it at Jinamar, Carrizal, and Juan grande, and 

 I found it nowhere more common than at Arguineguin. It avoids the western islands, and has 

 not yet been observed on Teneriffe, Gomera, Palma, and Ferro." 



To the eastward it is found as far as Sindh. Mr. Blanford informs me that he met with it 

 here and there in Persia, but did not observe it in Baluchistan near the coast, and only once shot 

 specimens on the higher plains of Persian Baluchistan. Mr. A. O. Hume, who obtained it in 

 Sindh, writes (Stray Feathers, i. p. 210) that " it was met with only at comparatively short 

 distances from the lower slopes of the hills which divide Sindh from Khelat. They were seen 

 exclusively on small patches of cultivation which here and there occur, oases in the barren waste 

 which fringes the skirts of the mountains. They were always in small flocks, feeding on a kind 

 of mustard ; very tame, but difficult to shoot, because, invariably, when in the least disturbed, 

 they run in amongst the mustard plants along the ground, with which their upper surfaces are 

 almost absolutely unicolorous." 



In its habits this elegantly coloured little Bullfinch is essentially an inhabitant of the desert 

 and of sterile rocky localities, where its beauty tends to enliven the dreary landscape; and 

 wherever it is found it must be looked for, not in the green flower-bestrewn gardens, but in the 



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