178 MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 



he found six eggs, one nest containing two, and four 

 others one egg each. The eggs are hke those of the 

 herring gull, but considerably smaller. I fired several 

 shots, but did not get another ; they are very shy and 

 wary, and I only had No. 4 and 6 shot. There appeared 

 to be a colony of, perhaps, eight or ten pairs in the 

 particular spot mentioned. 



" We had seen a great many gulls at the north- 

 west corner as we sailed up, but the wind and swell 

 were so dead on that I did not care to go round there. 

 The men brought off one voung gull alive, but I had 

 told them that I did not want eggs of herring gull, so 

 they did not take any. I noticed at least two pairs of 

 Barbary falcons,* but they flew high about the precipices, 

 screaming and chasing the Eleonoras and gulls, and did 

 not give a chance. We saw no rock doves, no swifts, 

 and few shags on Toro. The men reported many lizards, 

 but caught none. On Vacca thev saw also manv lizards, 

 and many snakes, but were afraid to handle them ; 

 Jem Poland also reports on Vacca a small, dark bird, 

 probably Sylvia sarda ; he found two empty nests built 

 of grass in the scrub on that island. I told the steward 

 to examine the crops of the falcons : he found in the 

 dark bird the remains of some small, dark coleopterous 

 insect, and in the hobby-coloured bird a yellowish, 

 transparent-winged insect. 



* Falco barbarus, a small red-naped North African form of the 

 Red Shahin (^F. babylonicus). 



