295 
Ornithology of Northern Africa. 
During the breeding-season both sexes assume a brighter rose- 
colour than at any other period. 
28. Emberiza cirlus. (Cirl Bunting.) 
I have found this bird occasionally in the open 
K'sour and Oumache, in company with the following, 
to be only of winter passage in the Sahara. 
29. Emberiza cia. (Meadow Bunting.) 
Not uncommon in small bands of from six to twelve in the 
open country from K’sour southwards, and also all through the 
oasis district of the Wed R/hir, south of Eastern Algeria. I 
have always observed the sexes apart in winter, and the males 
far more abundant than the females. It is only a winter visitant 
to the Sahara. In habits and general characteristics it no way 
differs from our Yellow Bunting (. 'Emberiza citrinella). 
30. Fringillaria Sahara, Bp. (House Bunting.) “ Fi- 
seeough Arab. 
I have ventured to call this the House Bunting, both from its 
habits and its local name in the M^zab country. It is almost con¬ 
fined to the southern Oases. The older catalogues gave Emberiza 
striolata as an Algerian species. Now, however, Fringillaria 
saharce is added. It ought rather to be substituted, as there is 
but one species yet found in the country. The distinctions be¬ 
tween the E. striolata of Riippell and the Fringillaria saharce 
of Bonaparte are very slight, and seem scarcely to mark more 
than a local variety. In F. saharce the white line behind the 
eye is smaller and fainter, the striated markings on the head are 
rather smaller, and the whole plumage of a more tawny hue, 
while the back does not exhibit the faint black marks down the 
centre of each feather. I have before me a series of M ; zab spe¬ 
cimens, and two of E. striolata, from Abyssinia, collected by 
A. Brehm. 
The House Bunting is deservedly a great favourite, from its 
lively familiar habits and its cheerful song. Few houses in the 
city of Ghardaia are without a pair or two of these little song¬ 
sters in their courtyard, and throughout the winter (if winter it 
may be called) the male, perched on the top of the balcony, 
x 2 
plains of 
It seems 
