396 Mr. D. A. Bannerman : First Impressions [Ibis, 
The Southern Little Owl is abundant throughout Tunisia, 
frequenting both the olive-groves of the north and the 
deserts of the south. Unlike the Scops Owl ( Otus scops 
scops), which we did not meet with, but which, according to 
Whitaker, is found frequently after the end of March, the 
Little Owl is often to be seen in the day-time, as I had 
already proved for myself. 
From the minaret of the Great Mosque a magnificent 
view of the surrounding country is obtained, and we then 
realised how isolated this once sacred town really is. On all 
sides stretched the great plain, not reddish or golden as the 
Sahara, but uniformly brown save where the crops were 
shooting through the sunburnt soil, stony in nature and 
partially covered with plant-growth or camel-grass. This 
was unquestionably the country of the Crested Lark, and, 
indeed, save for an occasional Hawk or Harrier, the land¬ 
scape was otherwise singularly devoid of bird-life. 
The Crested Larks of Tunisia have been dealt with at 
length by Mr. Whitaker in his book, and the members 
of the genus found in Algeria have been reviewed by 
Dr. Hartert in Nov. Zool. xviii. 1912, pp. 488-496. 
Of the long-billed form G. cristata , Whitaker recognises 
only two subspecies, arenicola (a pale race) and macrorhynclia 
(a darker race), but he does not give the exact range of these 
two forms in the Regency : macrorhynclia , he notes, inhabits 
country where “plains and large tracts of level country 
appear .... and where plains adjoin or are not far distant 
from mountains”; arenicola , on the other hand, is said by 
Whitaker to be confined to the inland semi-desert districts 
of the centre and south of the Regency, not extending north 
of the Atlas, or even (as far as he was aware) to the sea- 
coast”—Whitaker found it plentiful on the plains west of 
Gafsa and on the dry salt marshes of the Chott district. 
Since Whitaker published his book, Kleinschmidt and 
Hilgert have turned their attention to the long-billed Crested 
Larks of Tunisia, naming, between them, three forms. 
They showed that the bird which Whitaker referred to as 
macrorhynclia from northern Tunisia was distinct from the 
