82 SOME BIRDS OK THE CANARY ISLANDS 



Icod there is but little fore^^round, and the mountain 

 rises up eleven thousand feet above the town itself. 



More bananas are probably cultivated in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Icod than in any other district in the 

 island, and as one stands in the large square that over- 

 looks the sea, the intervening ground is mostly taken 

 up with banana groves. These groves are a favourite 

 resort of the Tenerife Robins, which seemed to be 

 rather locally distributed over the island. The three 

 nests of this species which I found were each of them 

 built in the space afforded by the breaking off of one 

 banana from a bunch, in which situation the birds 

 constructed an untidy-looking nest, as shown in the 

 illustration here reproduced. There is scarcely any 

 difference, to a casual observer, between these Robins 

 and those with which we are familiar in England ; the 

 peasants call them Pajaro dc San Antonio — Bird of 

 Saint Anthony. 



One of the birds peculiar to the island of Tenerife 

 is the Teydean Chaffinch. This species, w^hich is also 

 known as the Blue Chaffinch, inhabits the pine forests 

 on the higher slopes of the mountains ; it breeds very 

 late in the season, and as I left Tenerife in June, I was 

 unable to obtain photographs either of the bird itself or 

 of its nest. We expected to meet with it at Vilaflor, 

 but saw nothing of it there, although we were shown a 

 spring where these birds were said to come and drink, 

 and where the peasants used to snare them. 



Many of the birds of Tenerife have a hard struggle 

 to rear their young, not that they are harassed by 

 many natural enemies, but the land is worked in such 

 small holdings, and men and boys are so constantly 



