392 Mr. H. Saunders on the Ornitholof/i/ 



Owing to the oft-reinarked scarcity of birds, except Magpies,' 

 in France, my outward journey by way of Paris and Lyons calls 

 for no observations. At Avignon there is a tolerable pro- 

 vincial collection in the Musee Requien ; but although one of 

 the Professors informed me that Potamodus cettii and jEgithalus 

 pendulinus were two of the most characteristic birds of the 

 marshy Camargue, he could give me no information as to the 

 breeding-places of Lai-us gelastes and Phcenicupterus roseus, the 

 latter being, I believe, a very rare and irregular breeder in that 

 district. Driving from Avignon to Nimes, some Tawny Pipits 

 [Anthus rufescens), a few Crested Larks, small flocks of Linnets, 

 half a dozen Song- Thrushes, and one Redstart {Ruticilla jjhce- 

 nicura) were the only birds I saw ; but then such a furious mistral 

 was blowing as would have prevented any sensible bird from 

 unnecessary locomotion. At Nimes the collection of the late M. 

 Crespon is going fast to decay ; but it is still highly valuable as 

 illustrating the fauna of Provence, and contains a fine series of 

 birds of prey, specimens of Ph(enicopte7-us roseus and Larus 

 gelastes, with the eggs of both species, taken by M. Crespon 

 himself. 



At Marseilles the new Museum was not yet open ; so I was 

 unable to examine the Otogyps auricularis mentioned in the 

 'Richesses Ornithologiques du Midi de la France/ With the 

 exception of Rock- Martins [Cotyle rupestris) and abundance of 

 Black Redstarts [Ruticilla tithys) along the Cornice road to 

 Genoa, my note-book is, ornithologically, silent until my arrival 

 at Milan. Here I visited the superb collection of the Counts 

 Turati, whose complete series of nests, eggs, and down-clad 

 young of the birds which breed in Lombardy is in course of 

 illustration by Signor Eugenio Bettoni (c/. Ibis, 1868, p. 106). 

 Although the author mentions Anthus richardi as one of the 

 " characteristic species " of the Lombard plain, he must not, I 

 imagine, be understood to mean that it is in any way abun- 

 dant, or even constant, in that province ; for the Counts Turati 

 assured me that it has never been discovered breeding there, 

 and that, judging from the number of specimens enumerated as 

 obtained in England, it is more common with us than with 

 them. That its appearance is confined to the plains of Lorn- 

 hardy is probably the author^s meaning. 



