PONDS, PADDOCKS, AND AVIARIES 67 



some trumpeter bullfinches. If and are not kept 



in permanent quarantine or put into the presidio, pray 

 greet them cordially and tell the former that he shall 

 drink a bottle of old port that he knows of at Lilford 

 for every courser that he brings to me alive. (I have 

 only nine bottles left, but this need not limit his endea- 

 vours.) What enemies beside man have the houbaras * in 

 Fuerteventura .' Are there any predatory wild mammalia ^ 

 " I had a sharpish touch of the enemy some two 

 months ago, but am now fairly well. I have not been 

 out of the house for more than ten weeks. I wish that 

 you could send us some of the Canarian air in stone 

 bottles at (.'') per dozen."' 



"April \6th, 1889. 



" Am greatly obliged for the female titmouse, and 

 still more so for the two young bollii, which came to me 

 from the Zoological Gardens this evening. I had already 

 put a supposed pair of C. bollii into the aviary, where 

 they seem to be perfectly happy and contented, but have 

 as yet shown no signs of wishing to nest. The titmouse f 



1 To E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, Esq. 



* The Houbara Bustard (Otis iindiilaia) is an African species, which 

 occasionally visits Andalucia. It is considerable smaller than the 

 Great Bustard {O. tarda) (for which see Presidential Address, p. 39), 

 and with one other, Macqueen's Bustard {O. macqueent), is distinguished 

 by a ruffed neck. 



t Parus palmensis, a new species of blue tit, with a white breast, 

 peculiar to the island of La Palma ; it is almost entirely contincd 

 to the pine forest.— E. G. B. M-W. 



