DESERT TRUMPETER nULLFIXCiI. 
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bird being classed by various authors as an Emheriza, 
a Frmgilla, Pyrrhida, Carpodacus, Erytlirospiza, Ery- 
throthorax, Serinus, or Bucanetesl 
I have preferred, however, keeping it where it is 
placed by its structural affinities in the genus Pyrrhida, 
It may be considered as the ground and desert type 
of that genus, not far removed from the two preceding 
species. 
It is truly, as Dr. Bolle remarks, a bird of the Sa- 
hara. He writes about it as follows: — “Far beyond the 
other side of the fruitful coast-line of North Africa, 
which borders southwards the Mediterranean Sea, the 
cultivated fields of the Arabs are surrounded by a margin 
of desert, where a new unexplored kingdom, with a 
scanty but strange world of plants and animals, comes 
into view. Silence, as of the grave, reigns supreme 
in the terrible Sahara, where the sea of sand has its 
waves agitated by the poisonous breath of the Simoon. 
Through this run the routes of the caravans, and its 
palm-shaded oases and wadis, which during the falls of 
winter are flooded with water, and are adorned with 
thickets of mimosse and tamarisks.” 
It was in the two Canary Islands Lanzarote and 
Fuertaventura, which appear to have been divided from 
the Sahara by the sea, and bear the character of scenery 
above described, that Dr. Bolle found the Desert Trum- 
peter in great abundance, and where his observations 
upon its habits were made. 
“Whoever,” says Dr. Bolle, wishes to know the 
dwelling-place of P. githaginea, must not expect to 
follow me as when I described the wild Canary bird 
into the glades of the Hesperides, through hollows rich 
in flowers, and bordered whth woods of laurel. The 
Fortunate Islands are in no way similar to the ever- 
