222 MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 



boating expeditions in the bay and found numbers of 

 scoters (^Oidemia nigra), razor bills [.4lca tarda), brown- 

 headed {Larus ridibundus) and lesser black-backed gulls 

 (L. fuscus), sandwich terns {Sterna cantiaca), one diver 

 (^Colymbus), several skuas (Lestris sp. ?), the great and 

 small Mediterranean shearwaters {Puffinus kuhli and 

 T. yelkouan), common herons (^Ardea cinerea), two grebes 

 {Vodicefs sp. ?), and an osprey [Tandion haliaetus). They 

 brought in one specimen of skua alive, which is, I think, 

 undoubtedly Richardson's skua {Lestris richardsoni), in 

 the nearly uniform brown plumage. Mena made me 

 a present of a hemipode {Tar nix) alive, which seems 

 well used to a cage." 



" March \ith. We let the skua out for a walk and 

 wash on deck." 



" March 1 5//z. Fine, but the wind still easterly. Mena 

 called, bringing the shearwaters' skins. It is remarkable 

 that all those of the smaller species are females. Mena 

 told me that he could always distinguish between common 

 (Cypselus apus) and pallid swifts (C. pallidus), by their 

 manner of going under the tiles to their nests, the tormer 

 flying straight in, and the latter always pausing at the 

 entrance. He also told me that he had seen the first of 

 this species this year on 13th inst." 



At Sea 

 "March \6th. We left Malaga about 8 a.m. A 

 hoopoe came aboard in the morning. We saw many 



