Mediterranean Ornithology . 267 



Martins, which were numerous and quite fearless of man, 

 seized and carried off several small feathers of the dead bird, 

 which were whirling in an eddy of air. On April 21st we 

 saw our first Common Tern [Sterna JluviatUis) of the year, 

 and discovered an eyrie of a Falcon high up in a rugged pin- 

 nacle of apparently ironstone crag to the eastward of the bay of 

 Stella. The female bird only appeared once on our shouting 

 and rattling our oars, and we marked her into her breeding- 

 hole, but the Tiercel dashed about the summit of the cliffs, 

 screaming loudly. I was sorely tempted to attack this nest, 

 especially as I was becoming more and more convinced every 

 day that these Mediterranean breeding Falcons belong to a 

 race very distinct from wliat, for want of a better name, I 

 must call the typical form of Falco peregrinus. To any one 

 accustomed, as we are, to see our favourite birds on wing, the 

 size is quite sufficient to satisfy us that here we have to do 

 with a very different bird from the type just named. How- 

 ever, in this instance, the evening was creeping on, and it would 

 have been impossible to land anywhere within at least a mile 

 of the nest, so that the necessity of carrying a heavy coil of 

 rope through matted scrub to a height of some four or five 

 hundred feet, and the fact that we were running short of 

 provisions, combined to compel us to abandon the idea of 

 attempting a siege, so we ran round to Porto Longone and 

 laid in meat, bread, vegetables, and various fishes, of which 

 the best for the table was a Pelamid {Scomber pelamitus) of 

 some three pounds weight. Porto Longone is an excellent 

 harbour, well sheltered and with good and ample anchorage; 

 but it seems that yachts seldom enter it, as our appearance 

 created great excitement amongst the natives of the little 

 town, whose inhabitants seemed to be chiefly miners and 

 fishermen. 



We steamed out soon after daylight on April 22nd, a 

 beautiful calm sunny day, and steered for Monte Christo, a 

 most picturesque, somewhat pyramidal mass of variously 

 coloured rocks, of perhaps some four or five miles in circum- 

 ference. The eastern face of the island is a sloping mass of 

 grey slabs of rock with scanty patches of scrubby vegetation. 



