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Ornithology of Northern Africa. 
more readily than its congener ; nor will the report of a gun 
drive it off for more than a minute or two. It hangs over the 
Arab camp waiting for offal, and probably counting the poultry- 
stock ; and as scraps of burnouses and coloured cloth are scarcer 
in the Desert than in the mountains, it hangs about its nest, 
which is always in a tree, the cast-off coats of serpents, large 
scraps of thin bark, and perhaps a bustard’s wing. Its home 
is certainly the marine-storeshop of the Desert. 
15. Ascalaphia savignii. (Egyptian Eared Owl.) 
I once found a decayed specimen of this bird which had been 
killed among some rocks by an Arab a few days previously. 
16. Scops zorca. (Scops Owl.) “ Maroof Arab. 
Scarce in the Oases. 
17. Athene numida. (Algerian Little Owl.) “ Booma” Arab. 
Extremely abundant in all the Oases, and wherever the Date- 
palm is found. It roosts by day in the dark recesses of the 
Palm ; but the natives state that its favourite breeding-places are 
down the wells, in the sides of which it burrows. I have ob¬ 
served the birds descend in the evening into a deserted well, 
though for the most part they fly high in the dusk, uttering 
their monotonous, but not unpleasing note, well represented by 
their name “ Booma.” The light plumage seems to be acquired 
by age, and the young bird is sometimes as dark-coloured as 
European specimens of Athene noctua. I have on two occasions 
found these dark- and light-coloured birds paired together. I 
should therefore have been inclined to doubt the specific distinc¬ 
tion of the African race, were it not that in a large series of some 
twenty specimens they are invariably smaller than the A. noctua ; 
and the same remark holds good of a series of eggs from S. 
Algeria compared with those from the south of France. The 
largest skins ( $) scarcely exceed 8 inches in length. 
18. Corvus corax. (Haven.) “ Hh’raKb” Arab. 
Plentiful in the Dayats, where it resides in communities, re¬ 
turning home to roost at sunset in a long file after the manner 
of Books. It seems strange, that the Baven, so solitary here, 
and which chases away its own progeny from its neighbourhood 
(unless it be grievously belied), should be so gregarious both in 
