34 Lord Lilford's Cruise in the Mediterranean. 



Gulls '' con bccco color di corallo/^ as I firmly believe from 

 their cry, their way of holding themselves, and the bright 

 pink of their bills. For the first three weeks of their life 

 on board I had of course every opportunity of comparing 

 them with the young Larus leucophaeus, and on arriving in 

 England had the pleasure of presenting them to the Zoo- 

 logical Society, in whose gardens I also deposited two of our 

 Herring-Gulls from Vacca. 



The general appearance of Larus audouini on the wing is 

 certainly more like that of L. leucophceus than that of any 

 other Gull with which I am acquainted; but the wings seem 

 conspicuously longer, and of course at a short distance the 

 brilliant red bill is a clear distinction. The cry is not so 

 harsh, and more prolonged than that of the latter species. 



I subjoin the measurements of a skin of one of my specimens, 

 a male, as taken by Mr. Salvin : — S ■ Total length about 20 

 inches ; length of tarsus 2*45 ; bill, from gape, 3 ; wing, from 

 carpus to tip, 15"75 ; tail 6 inches. 



These islands are very interesting in many ways. My men 

 told me that on Vacca they saw several snakes of various 

 colours (one large black one in pursuit of the only Quail they 

 saw there) and a great variety of lizards; but I could not 

 inspire them with my love for the Reptilia, and the only 

 animals of that order that they brought off to me were some 

 dozens of Gongylus ocellatus. On Toro they said they met 

 with no snakes, but vast numbers of small brilliant gi'eeu 

 lizards (probably Lacerta viridis) , which defied their attempts 

 to capture them. My yacht-master, who landed on Toro Avitli 

 a gun and scrambled up to the top, described a curious-looking 

 bird, which he pursued for some time, and which at last beat 

 him by flying into a cave. From his description, I imagine 

 it must have been a Nightjar, of which species we found 

 the wings at the water's edge on Vacca, the owner probably 

 having been devoured by the Ravens, which had a nest close 

 by. These black robbers also spoiled a good specimen of 

 Falco eleanorce, which fell on a ledge to which we could not 

 get till the day after the bird was shot. We took three young 

 Ravens from the nest, and shot both the parent birds. I saw 



