bZ DESERT TRUMPETER BULLFINCH. 



wing. Length, five inches and a half; from carpus to tip three 

 inches and three-eighths; the tip of the wing reaching, when 

 closed, within one-third of an inch of the end of the tail. Tail 

 two inches and three-eighths long; tarsus three-quarters of an inch; 

 beak from gape five-eighths of an inch; height of beak five- 

 twelfths of an inch; circumference of beak at base one inch. 



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

 been known to occur in Europe with certainty in Pro- 

 vence, Tuscany, and the Grecian Archipelago. It is 

 found however at Malta, the bird figured in the "Icones 

 Fauna Italica," having been captured there. It is seen 

 in the island from December to March, and its desig- 

 nation "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. A long and in- 

 teresting 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. 869-393; and in Cabanis' "Journal fur Orni- 

 thologie," for 1859, p. 469, a further ' account of it is 

 given by Chalihl Effencli, 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. 



Dr. C. Bolle's monograph is a model of this kind of 

 descriptive natural history, going into full particulars of 

 all the habits and nidification of a most interesting bird, 

 hitherto generally dismissed by authors with the brief 

 remark, "Ses mceurs, ses habitudes, son regime et sa pro- 

 pagation sont inconnus." 



In the early part of his account, Dr. Bolle reprobates 

 the system of name-making in modern days ; the present 



