MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 239 



spot is known as Mezzo Sciffo. The banks of the stream 

 are fringed with spike rushes, tamarisks, flags, reeds, and 

 green scrub, and altogether it looks likely for wild-fowl, 

 snipes, a woodcock or two, and perhaps a pig ; but it is 

 crossed at a short distance from the sea by a bridge and 

 carriageable road to Tempio." 



" May ^th. The falcon's nest was easily got at 

 by our trusty climber going hand over hand up a rope 

 lowered from above. It contained two fine young birds, 

 male and female, which we took and sent on board. 

 Found very few rock doves, and only shot two saw two 

 Audouins in the bay of Trana, but could not bag them. 

 At Mezzo Sciffo T. shot a purple heron, which looks 

 like a bird of last year." 



"The birds new to our Maddalena list were: Circus mruginosus 

 Emberiza miliaria, Turdus merula, Linota cannabina, Anas boscas, 

 Ardea purpurea, and Gallinula Moropus." 



" May ^t/i. Saw several Alpine swifts hawking over 

 the town. One Audouin's gull seen off San Stefano, 

 from which island the goatherds brought off a nest of 

 blue rock-thrush with five eggs in the evening. 



" The young falcons feed themselves ravenously " 



" A/ay 6(h. After luncheon, Peck, the captain, and I 

 went away in steam launch with the old Trojan to the 

 coast of Caprera, where the latter tried for conger, seeming 

 to know every hole amongst the stones. He threw in 



