MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 225 



lesser black-backed gulls, shearwaters, some porpoises, and 

 near Adra a flight of cranes making the Spanish coast 

 from the southward." 



Valencia 



'■'■ March 2is(. Senor Arevalo told me that Sylvia 

 melanopogon is not uncommon here, but was formerly much 

 more so (i/r) near IVIalaga, and that its eggs vary quite 

 as much in colour as those of Cisticola. He also told me 

 of the occurrence on the Albufera of the African pelican 

 {Pelecatius onocrotalus), and of a specimen of Chelidon, which 

 they cannot determine." 



" March '12nd. Don Manuel Cabelle came and sat 

 with me for some time. He says that this has been 

 a wonderfully good season for wild-fowl on the Albufera ; 

 he asked T. to go out and join him at the fishing 

 village at the Albufera to-morrow evening, to shoot the 

 next day. He tells me of a bird three times the size 

 of a swan ! entirely white ! ! and about five feet high ! ! ! 

 shot near here, and now to be seen stuffed at the Casino 

 de los Cazadores ; this must surely be a myth, but 

 requires investigation." 



" March 2\th. Don Jose Arevalo, bringing with 

 him the unknown Chelidon, which is, as far as I can 

 see, nothing but a common house martin {Chelidon urbica'). 

 Don Jose stayed some time, and gave me a memento 

 in the shape ot a sketch of the head of a pallid swift 



