Birdfi of Teneriffe. 427 



naturalist of Orotava, is also C. bollii ; and my theory is that 

 C. laurivora (W. & B.) is not to be found in TeneriflFe, 

 though apparently numerous in the neighbouring island of 

 Gomera. Poor Baeza^ who was nine months in the latter 

 island and killed many Pigeons there^ probably over a hun- 

 dred, told me they were all C. laurivora. Tliis segregation 

 of species differing so little as these two is only what might 

 be expected in an archipelago of large islands like the 

 Canaries, where the intervals between the islands are so 

 wide. I was greatly disappointed at not being able to 

 visit Gomera, but the difficulties of communication were 

 insurmountable. The chance of three days in a wretched 

 schooner (as experienced on one occasion by Dr. Crotch), 

 short of provisions and water, on a voyage of some forty 

 or fifty miles, was sufficient to damp my ardour, to say 

 nothing of the fact that there are no roads and no hotels in 

 Gomera, and that the people there are accounted a most 

 uncouth and inhospitable lot by the Teneriffians — a " muy 

 mala gente/'' as they term them. When the long-promised 

 steamer runs between the various islands, it will be a com- 

 paratively easy matter to settle the Pigeon question ; and I 

 confidently look forward to its solution Avithin the next two 

 or three years, for I am given to understand that the 

 Spanish Government have at last consented to subsidize 

 steamers carrying the local mails at regular and constant 

 intervals. 



I had very little opportunity of studying the habits of 

 C bollii, but it appears to be an uncommonly shy and wary 

 bird, and comparatively few are obtained by the local sports- 

 men or ^'cazadores.^^ It must be tolerably numerous in 

 the belt of forest between Agua mansa (the ravine where I 

 obtained my nest, above the eastern end of the so-called 

 valley of Orotava) and Tacoronte, for I frequently heard ac- 

 counts of numbers seen in the cultivated ground below the 

 woods, and I also noticed feathers belonging to them at the 

 drinking-places in the woods of La Mina, above INIercedes, 

 near the city of Laguna. But a visitor might spend months 

 in the island before becoming aware of their existence. 



