424 Captain S. G. Reid on the 



XLIV. — Notes on the Birds of Teneriffe. 

 By Capt. Savile G. Reid, R.E. 



At tlie end of January of the present year (1887) I fled iu 

 despair from the prolonged horrors of our English winter to 

 the genial climate of the Canary Islands, and during a 

 pleasant sojourn at Orotava, Teneriffe, until the middle of 

 the following April, I made a few notes on the ornithology 

 of that island, which may be of interest to the readers of 

 * The Ibis/ 



I was aware that, owing to the excellent work done in 

 previous years in that island by Messrs, Webb and Berthelot, 

 Dr. Bolle, and Mr. F. D. Godman, there was not much 

 prospect of anything new ; but I found many interesting 

 species and enjoyed my ornithological excursions immensely, 

 in spite of the bad roads (always excepting the excellent 

 " carretera,^'' or main road) and the indifferent means of 

 locomotion. 



Through the kind intervention of INIr. Peter S. Reid, our 

 British Vice-Consul at Orotava, Avell known to the native 

 and foreign population there as '^ Don Pedro,^^ I was intro- 

 duced soon after my arrival to the captain of the militia, 

 Don Benjamin Baeza, the same who in 1871 had accompanied 

 Mr. Godman in his rambles about the island. With him I 

 got on famously, and we were doing great things, when, alas ! 

 he suddenly sickened and died ; his death putting an end to 

 the success and pleasure of my work in a Qianner that I 

 cannot attempt to describe. He was a really good fellow, who 

 knew everybody and everything in the island, besides being a 

 fairly good ornithologist and taxidermist and a tolerable shot. 

 I followed the poor man to his grave a few days before we 

 were to have gone on an expedition to the island of Fuerte- 

 ventui'a, where we had hoped to reap a rich harvest, our 

 preparations having been most carefully made, and everything 

 arranged even to the hour of sailing of the schooner ; which 

 is saying a good deal in a Spanish island like Teneriffe. 



The unfortunate loss of my friend and guide quite upset 

 my plans, and I remained at Orotava the whole of the two 



