422 Mr. F. C. Selous on 



I found two nests of the Ycllow-lcfrgcd IIcrriug-GuU {Larus 

 CO c/i in/I a ns), one \vitli three and tlie other with two eggs ; 

 these being indistinguishable from those of the common 

 Herring-Gull of our British coasts. I believe that the 

 ]\Iediterranean Black-headed Gull must breed on this coast 

 of Asia Minor, but I could get no information on this 

 point. On some niudbanks in the salt-lagoon I saw a flock 

 of about fifty small wading birds, which I am almost sure 

 were Dunlins [Tringa alpina), also a number of Curlews, 

 Avhich may have been Slender-billed Curlews [Numenius 

 temiirostris). I got back to Bournabat at 4 o'clock on the 

 afternoon of the 17th, and, taking a stroll round the fields 

 skirting the village, found three nests of the Grey-backed 

 Warbler {Aedon familiaris) and several of the Black-headed 

 Bunting {Emberiza melanoccpliala). These two species, both 

 very common, were now just commencing to lay. Both 

 species choose similar situations for their nests, in rather 

 open bushes, usually not many feet from the ground; but 

 while the Grey-backed Warblers' nests are very large, loose 

 structures, lined with an abundance of wool and camel's hair, 

 and with a very shallow open cup, those of the Black-headed 

 Bunting, though also large and somewhat loosely built, are 

 deeper and more neatly finished inside, and as a rule are not 

 lined with hair. 



May 18th was my last day in Bournabat, and I spent it 

 with Demetrius nest-hunting in the neighbourhood of the 

 village. We found several Masked Shrikes' nests (^Lanius 

 nuMcus), which were all built on olive-trees and from eight 

 to ten feet above the ground. These nests were always placed 

 on a thick branch, in the saine situation that a Missel- 

 Thrush's nest might occupy. They were much smaller and 

 neater — indeed, little more than half the size of the nests 

 of either the Lesser Grey Shrike [Lanius minor) or the 

 Woodchat-Shrike [Lanius jjomeranus) , of which latter bird 

 we also found a number of nests, some of them in bushes, 

 but most of them in olive-trees. 



On i\lay 19th I said goodbye to my kind friends in 

 Bournabat, and, going on board the steamer at Smyrna, 

 started for Ilungarv the same afternoon. 



