288 Mr. W. H. Simpson's Ornithological Notes 



Golden Eagle {Aquila chnjsaetos), which is scarce throughout the 

 district, I never saw here. The Spotted Eagle {A. ncevia) pre- 

 fers the woodlands of the plain ; and Bonelli's Eagle [A. bonellii) 

 appears to delight in the lower precipices facing the more open 

 country. The Lanner or the Peregrine may breed here : we 

 know that the former {Falco lanarius) occurs in the Parnassus. 

 The Kestrel (F. tinnunculus) is common enough, and a few Ravens 

 share with the Vultures the darker recesses. Neither the Chough 

 [Pyrrhocorax graculus) nor the Alpine Chough (P. alpinus) are 

 found, though both occur — the latter plentifully — in the Par- 

 nassus and Taygetus; but there is a colony of the White- 

 shouldered Jackdaw {Corvus coUaris"^, Drummond), which breeds 

 about the western mouth of the gorge. 



Leaving the gloomy depths of the Great Klissoura, where one 

 never feels quite sure that the whistle of a bullet may not accom- 

 pany the report of the long Greek gun which occasionally awakens 

 its echoes, let us transfer our attention to another part of Mount 

 Aracynthus facing the open country. Here the more accessible 

 cliffs which form the western buttresses of the mountain overlook 

 the lagoon of Mesolonghi, the alluvial plain of the silver-eddying 

 {dp<yvpoBiv7]<;) Acheloiis, and the distant islands of the Ionian 

 Sea. The line of precipices is not continuous ; between the 

 Grand Gorge and the Little Klissoura there are three sections of 

 an average height of about 130 feet. They spring from a very 

 steep talus, which is covered with their fragments, and slopes 

 rapidly to the narrow strip of level ground bordering the lagoon. 

 Most of the waters from the upper parts of the mountain are 

 collected into two subterranean sources, one of which gradually 

 oozes up through the tangled olive-grove opposite the mouth of 

 the Grand Gorge, whilst the other forms a copious fountain 

 beneath a small spur of rock which comes down to the edge of the 

 lagoon itself, — thus forming a sort of freshwater marsh by the 

 side of the salt lake. The temperature of this spring is much 

 raised after heavy rains. It is always, especially in a morning, 

 a favourite haunt of ducks, which are more numerous here and 

 on the adjacent parts of the lagoon than anywhere else. Not 

 far from this spring is a group of huge stones which have fallen 



* See Proc. Zool. Soc. lS-l(i, p. Vi. 



