405 
ig2i.] of Tunisia and Algeria . 
certainly had no tail to speak of, and had very rounded 
wings, dark upper parts, not a particularly long bill, and the 
legs were not visible. It seemed quite dazed by the sun, 
and with slow almost butterfly-like flight dropped into the 
bush again some 20 feet from me, whence I failed to dis¬ 
lodge it. It was not an Owl as has been suggested. It 
might have been a short-legged Rail, but what a curious 
place in which to find one ! In size it reminded me of a 
young Partridge on the 1st of September. 
Quite a number of birds recorded by other ornithologists 
were not seen by me at Hammam-Meskoutine, as, for in¬ 
stance, the Hawfinch ( Coccothraustes coccothraustes buvryi), 
noted by Hartert, and met with by Mr. Wallis abundantly 
in March' and April 1911, the Golden Oriole ( Oriolus oriolus 
oriolus'), recorded by Wallis on 1st March, and Hartert on 
20th May, the Serin ( Serinus canarius serinus ), recorded by 
Wallis on 21st April, and by Hartert in February, the Siskin 
(Carduelis spinus), seen by Hartert in February 1911. The 
Common Chaffinch ( Fringilla coelebs ccelebs ) was seen in this 
district by Hartert, as well as F. c. africana , but all those 
observed by me belonged to the latter North African race. 
The African Rock-Bunting ( Emberiza cia africana ), recorded 
by Wallis in April, was absent, and a long list of other species 
including a number of birds of passage, all of which will be 
be found enumerated in the two papers cited. No true 
migrants were observed, Swifts, Swallows, and Martins were 
conspicuously absent, and members' of the Warbler family 
were remarkably scarce. The great rush to Europe had not 
yet commenced. 
Hammam-Meskoutine is indeed a splendid centre from 
which to gain a first-hand knowledge of the birds of the 
more mountainous parts of northern Africa. We left this 
interesting district on the 26th of February, making our way 
west to Constantine, a town about which much has already 
been written. The line passes close to the rugged Djebel 
Taya, famous as the habitat of the North African Bearded 
Vulture ( Gypaetus barbatus barbatus). Constantine enjoys a 
unique position on a hill surrounded on three sides by the 
