MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 155 



Messina 



"■March nth. Went out to the Faro in the cutter.' 

 Thousands of gulls, chiefly L. melanocephalus, also /.. 

 argentatus, L. ridibundus and L. canus. Saw a very large 

 shearwater, and a few terns,* the Sandwich tern, I think 

 [Sterna cantiaca), near the Faro. Saw the first house 

 martins. At the little salt lakes at the Faro, they stick 

 up wooden herons as decoys ; it appears that the common 

 and the purple heron {Ardea cinerea and A. purpurea) 

 pass in great numbers in spring. Many of the L. 

 melanocephalus, of which I shot three, have the black 

 head nearly perfect, others show very little trace of it. 



" About Capo Sant' Andrea, saw the common kestrel 

 {Falco tinnunculus), the blue rock-thrush {Monticola cyanea), 

 black redstart (Ruticilla titys), kingfisher {Alcedo ispida), 

 rock pigeon [Columba livid), and gulls. Between Messina 

 and Taormina, saw several little gulls {Larus minutus), and 

 two or three flights of cranes {Grus cinerea). Young 

 R brought me off two bottles of lizards, appar- 

 ently all of one species (L. viridis), but one (Gecko 

 platydactylus ?). 



" Saw ten vultures going north at an immense height 

 in the air." 



Taormina 

 '■^ March 16th. A bright sunny morning. Sailed for 

 Taormina, where we anchored. Beautiful scenery all 



* Popularly known as ' Sea-swallows.' 



