26 Lord Lilford^s Cruise in the Mediterranean. 



cloud of feathers iu my face for my pains ; and unsavoury 

 feathers they were. We saw a solitary Flamingo, Purple 

 Heron, Squacco Heron, a good many common "Wild Ducks 

 {Anas boschas), and some Red-crested Pochards [Branta 

 rufina), besides the species enumerated above, also many 

 Hooded Crows {Corvus comix), of which bird we found 

 several nests in the low tamarisks by the river-side ; one 

 of these nests contained two callow young, which we carried 

 off, and one of which is, at the time of writing this, in the 

 Regent's Park Zoological Gardens. On the 22nd May 

 Antonio took me to some flat islets in a diflerent part of 

 the stagno, on which we found common Terns {Sterna 

 fluviatilis) breeding in great numbers, and collected many 

 of their eggs. The Sandwich Tern {Sterna cantiaca) and 

 Little Tern {Sterna minuta) were quite as abundant as the 

 first-named species; but we only found one nest of S. 

 minuta, and none of Sterna cantiaca. A great number of 

 Ducks {Anas boschas) breed in these islets ; and we found 

 many of their nests with eggs, and in two instances young 

 birds which had just left the shell. We found also one 

 nest of JEffialitis cantiana, several recently hatched Coots, 

 and common Waterhens ij}allinula chloropus) , saw Osprey, 

 a large Falcon, and a great number of Red-crested Pochards, 

 which were in large flocks, and apparently had not com- 

 menced nesting. I secured beautiful specimens of the three 

 species of Sterna above mentioned, a pair of Kentish Plovers, 

 and two very fine adult Herring-Gulls {Larus leucopheeus) , 

 but did not succeed in bagging the only individual of Hydro- 

 chelidon fissipes which we met with ; nor could I get a shot 

 at the Red-crested Pochards, which appeared wary to an 

 extent uncommon even in their wide-awake family. The 

 nests of Kentish Plover and Little Tern were out on the 

 green scum weed which covers the semiliquid mud round 

 these islets, whilst those of the common Tern were on terra 

 jirma on bare spots amongst the scrubby vegetation with 

 which they are thickly overgrown. We saw one Flamingo 

 only, probably the same individual before observed. 



We sailed for Port Mahon on the 23rd of May, but met a 



