Mediterranean Ornithology. 263 



handled a specimen of the larger Shearwater, though our 

 gunners assured me that it was by far the most common of 

 the two species above mentioned. The only species of Tern 

 obtained was the Sandwich Tern {Sterna cantiaca), which 

 was met with in considerable numbers. 



We left Malaga on the morning of March 16th, in a heavy 

 easterly swell with a light breeze from that quarter, and 

 making but little way, brought up under the lee of a point 

 of low land near Adra, in hopes of a quiet night, which, how- 

 ever, we failed to obtain. A Hoopoe boarded us early on 

 the 17th, and we observed a flight of Cranes {Grus cinerea) 

 making the Spanish land from the southward. We got our 

 anchor about 6 a.m., and with light easterly breezes and 

 very fine weather steamed into the harbour of Valencia 

 on the afternoon of March 18th. I was still unable to do 

 more than get up on deck and bask in the sun, and Colonel 

 Irby was obliged to leave us for England, vm Barcelona and 

 Perpignan, but my Valencian friends made our visit very 

 pleasant ; and I made the acquaintance of Don J. Arevalo, 

 Professor of Zoology in the University, a hard-working orni- 

 thologist and student of ' The Ibis,' with whom I had much 

 pleasant bird-talk. This gentleman gave me a good deal of 

 interesting information, especially concerning the habits of 

 Lusciniola melanopogon, which is not uncommon in the 

 marshes of the Valencian Albufera ; he also assured me of 

 the truth of a report which had reached me of the occurrence 

 on that lagoon of Pelecanus onocrotalus. But this may have 

 been one of two individuals of this species which escaped 

 from the Royal Aviaries at Madrid many years ago, and which 

 appear to have worked their way, with frequent rests, to the 

 eastern coasts, as during my rides in Spain, in the spring of 

 1864, I heard, at various inns and ventas at which I halted, 

 marvellous tales of two white birds, " larger than Vultures,'^ 

 and with "heads like horses,^' which had caused great excite- 

 ment and consternation in the minds of the country folk of 

 La Mancha, and along the southern side of the Sierra Mo- 

 rena. My son accepted an invitation to assist at the last 

 " tirada " of the season at the Wildfowl on the Albufera on 



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