10 Lord Lilford^s Cruise in the Mediterranean. 



Pallas, in his ' Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica/ tome ii. p. 79, 

 appears to have considered the three species of Caccabis as 

 only local races, of which three, I suspect, Caccabis graca 

 was his typical form, as in his short diagnosis he does not 

 mention either the black spots below the collar of C. rufa, or 

 the chestnut colour and white spots of C. petrosa. But I 

 must return to the yacht, and can only hope that this long 

 digression about my favourite game birds may be pardoned, 

 and perhaps be of service to some brother ornithologists or 

 sportsmen desiring of making acquaintance with the foreign 

 members of this interesting and, generally speaking, estimable 

 family. 



We left Genoa January 30, and with light airs of wind got 

 into the splendid Bay of Spezia early in the afternoon of the 

 next day. We remained there, enjoying the matchless beauty 

 of the scenery, with fine weather, till February 3, when we 

 sailed for Leghorn. Great numbers of Gulls, principally L. 

 ridibundus and L. melanocejihalus , frequent the Bay of Spezia, 

 with some L. leucophaus, a few L. canus ; and I also distinctly 

 made out one Rissa tridactyla, which, as far as my obser- 

 vation goes, is by no means a common bird on the Mediter- 

 ranean coasts. We got into Leghorn about daylight, Feb- 

 ruary 4, and immediately drove off to Pisa, some ten or 

 twelve miles. On the way I noticed the following species of 

 birds — Falco tinnunculus, Corvus frugilegus, Passer italic, 

 Fringilla chloris, F. carduelis, F. ccelebs, Motacilla alba, 

 Anthus ?, Galerita cristata, Columba cenas, and an Ardea, at 

 a great distance, which looked very white in the bright sun- 

 light, but may have been A. cinerea. 



At Pisa I had, unfortunately, no time to visit the Museum, 

 but, amidst the many attractions of that beautiful city, did 

 not forget to pay my humble tribute of respect at the tomb 

 of Paoli Savi, in the Campo Santo. We left Leghorn the next 

 morning at daylight for Naples, with a very light northerly 

 wind, which carried us about six miles on our course, and left 

 us becalmed till about 1 p.m., when a delightful breeze crept 

 up to us from N.N.W., and we span along at from seven to 

 eleven knots till about 10a.m., February 6, when it fell calm 



