282 Notes on Mediterranean Ornithology. 



Thrushes, a pair of Ravens, and a Common Buzzard, but 

 nothing new to our list. Coasting the western side of Spargi 

 on our return to the yacht we discovered two young Shags 

 which were unable to fly, but which beat us fairly in a long 

 chase by diving under the launch when we imagined that we 

 had cornered them in a shallow creek. These were the only 

 two birds of this species we met with on this voyage that 

 were not strong fliers. On May 15th I despatched our old 

 native with a small collecting-gun, to obtain small birds and 

 eggs ; he brought back several cleanly-shot specimens of 

 MelizophUus sardus with two nests containing hard-set eggs, 

 and a Wood Lark {Alauda arhorea), new to our local list. 

 A boy brought off" a cock Sparrow of the representative 

 Sardinian species, Passer saliceti, alive. I only mention this 

 because the bird in question has for nearly five years thriven 

 in the classical gloom of No. 6 Tenterden Street, and, singu- 

 larly enough, is the only individual of his race that I have 

 ever seen or heard of alive in this country. A very fine 

 specimen of Dusky Perch {Serranus gigas), weighing 22 lbs., 

 was brought on board by some Neapolitans, who said 

 that they had taken it on a long line ofl" Tavolara. I 

 bought this fish for 10 francs, and found its flesh infinitely 

 superior to that of any Mediterranean fish, except Red Mullet, 

 of which I ever partook. We spent the greater part of the 

 17th May in examining the skeleton and carrying oflf the jaw- 

 bones of a huge whale which had been stranded some two 

 years previously on the northern end of Maddalena, and had 

 been towed to a sandy beach at the western extremity of San 

 Stefano, where it was flensed by the people of Maddalena, 

 and its bones picked clean by the Black and Griff'on Vultures 

 from the mainland of Sardinia. We saw several of the former 

 and one or two of the latter species circling high in air, and 

 a Raven or two, apparently unwilling to leave the spot that 

 had, no doubt, savoury memories for them, and was, indeed, 

 still redolent of putrid blubber. We left our anchorage soon 

 after daybreak on May 18th, bound for Genoa, but on 

 clearing Maddalena found such a heavy sea from the north- 

 east, that I decided to run up the western coast of Corsica, 



