28 Lord Lilford^s Cruise in the Mediterranean. 



vast quantity of Alpine Swifts were breeding, in company 

 with many of the common species. I discovered a nest of 

 the Rock-Martin attached to a flat face of rock, some thirty 

 feet above the water. I secured the male bird, but, as I 

 could not get the nest without destroying it and its con- 

 tents, I left the hen bird sitting upon it in peace. A few 

 pairs of Herring-Gulls sailed high above us in circles, barking 

 and screaming ; a pair of Blue Rock-Thrushes had their nest 

 in a quiet creek on the eastern side ; and we saw a few common 

 Kestrels, one of which I brought down, as he gave me a snap 

 shot, fondly hoping that he was Falco eleanorce, as he looked 

 so dark in the early sunlight. The doctor shot a very young 

 specimen of Falco barbarus, and a few Rock-Doves, and found 

 one rotten egg of Shag, and another of Herring-Gull in the 

 same condition. The man who accompanied him about the 

 island told me that he saw a very few small dark-coloured 

 birds about the scrubby bushes, probably Pyrophthalma mela- 

 nocephala, possibly Sylvia sarda, but they did not bag one. 



We went off to the yacht about 8 a.m., and stood away for 

 Port Mahon ; but as on rounding Cape Teulada we met light 

 head breezes, we bore away for the Island of Vacca, which 

 lies a few miles to the south-east of Cape Sperone, and upon 

 which my friend Mr. Basil Brooke had met with Falco elea- 

 nor<B in large numbers in May 1873. This island is perhaps 

 something less than a mile in circumference, more or less 

 precipitous all round — though accessible in a few spots on the 

 eastern side in calm weather, rising to a high point at its 

 southern extremity — and composed, according to La Marmora 

 (Voyage en Sardaigne, troisieme partie, Descr. geologique, 

 tome i. p. 537), of a volcanic conglomerate, very much fretted 

 and weather-worn, particularly at the southern end, where 

 the cliff overhangs a shallow cave of considerable height, 

 with an irregular perpendicular fissure. Having but little 

 wind, we did not get within a mile of the island till about 

 4 P.M., when we brought the yacht up, head to windward, 

 and went off in the cutter to explore the eastern side. Long 

 before we went off I had distinctly made out Falco eleanor(B 

 in large numbers, many Gulls, Rock-Doves, Swifts, and 



