416 
Rev. H.B. Tristram on the 
find that none of my North African birds equal it in the purity 
of the black on the upper parts, nor have they the distinct dis¬ 
tribution of colour on the shoulders and flanks, from which 
Mr. Strickland defined the species. Yet, on arranging a series 
from various localities, it seems almost impossible to draw the 
precise line between the local varieties or species of this almost 
cosmopolitan bird. 
46. Ruticilla moussieri. (Moussier’s Redstart.) “Zin- 
zukh” Arab. 
This most beautiful and charming of all. the Algerian birds 
was first obtained by me in 1855, near Boghar, on the southern 
slope of the Western Atlas. This is, I believe, its extreme 
northern range in the western part of Algeria, and it has not 
been observed, so far as I am aware, in the province of Oran or 
in Morocco. But in Tunis it approaches nearer the coast, and 
was there discovered by Mr. Fraser some years before Leon 
Olph-Gaillard described it in 1852 in the f Proceedings * of 
the Natural History Society of Lyons. It is an attractive little 
bird, as well in its plumage as in its habits and song, partaking 
of the characteristics both of the Redstart and the Stonechat, 
between which it appears to be a link. In the northern Sahara 
it is very scarce, but increases in numbers as we advance 
southwards, being always to be found in the gardens and palm- 
groves, and generally in the thickets of the dayats. In the 
whole of the M’zab country it is abundant, and its lively note 
and repeated cry, whence its name “ Zinzukh” may be heard 
about all the fruit-trees. 
In the male bird the whole under plumage and upper tail-coverts 
are of a bright chestnut-red, as is the tail, with the exception of the 
lower portion of the two middle rectrices; the head and back black, 
with the feathers slightly fringed with brown ; white forehead and 
line over the eye—broad white epaulets, and a broad white patch 
on the outer webs of the secondaries. The nest is compact, com¬ 
posed externally of sticks and moss, and internally of fine hair 
and wool, placed usually close to the ground in a low bush. 
The eggs, four in number, are of the size and shape of those of 
the Tithys Redstart (Ruticilla tithys ), but of a delicate white 
suffused with a delicate greenish hue, unlike those of any other 
