Mediterranean Ornithology. 265 



portion of the Mediterranean -with ^rliich I have any 

 acquaiutance. To resume om' story, we ran through the 

 Straits of Bonifacio with a bright moon and perfectly calm 

 sea, and at 1 a.m. on April 1st left off steaming, to give our 

 stokers and engineer a spell of sleep, off the entrance to the 

 bay of Porto Yecchio in Corsica. We got up steam again about 

 8.30 A.M., and had a delightful run along the very beautiful 

 eastern coast of Corsica, our only incident being the pur- 

 chase of two fine Dentici [Spams denteoe) from some Leghorn 

 fishermen, whose becalmed vessel we overhauled and towed 

 for several hours till off Bastia, and the weather holding 

 calm, we anchored off the town of Spezia early on the 

 morning of April 2nd. "We remained at this most beautiful 

 but ornithologically unproductive spot for some days, making 

 a few excursions by land and water. The only Gulls seen by 

 us in the harbour during this visit were Larus melanocephalus 

 in small numbers ; many of them had already acquired the 

 full black head. We observed our first Swallow and House- 

 Martin of the year on April 4th, but, with the exception of 

 the Gulls above mentioned and two or three Cirl Buntings, 

 not nearly so much as might be seen in almost any part of 

 our own country by an observer of bird-life. We left our 

 harbour under sail with a light head wind on April 13th, and 

 beat into Leghorn the next morning against a very strong 

 S.E. breeze ; hence we made a visit to the ^luseum at Pisa, 

 which I had missed seeing on a former occasion ; some 

 of the groups of stuffed birds are most admirably mounted, 

 but as Mr. H. Saunders has given some account of this 

 Museum in a former volume of * The Ibis,' I refrain from 

 further remarks thereon. The weather during our stay at 

 Leghorn was extremely unpleasant, a strong wind blowing 

 from all quarters of the compass, with cold driving showers. 

 This state of things, and the fact that two of our party 

 were invalids, detained us in this commodious but unattrac- 

 tive port till the morning of April 19th, when, with a smart 

 breeze from N.N.E. and fine weather, we got away about 

 9 A.M. under steam and sail, and ran into Porto Longone in 

 Elba; but as it looked unproductive did not remain there, 



