of the Delta of the Rhone. 185 



deserves far more attention and critical examination than 

 we were able to bestow upon it. 



On our way to and from the Camargue a few days were 

 spent in the ancient and interesting town of Aries ; and 

 visits were made to the Plaine de la Crau and to Marseilles. 



Aries is now a quiet agricultural town, but possesses many 

 remarkable monuments, dating from the commencement of 

 the Christian era, which bear testimony to its former great- 

 ness. During our short residence there we made several 

 excursions into the surrounding country, including a couple 

 of visits to the Marais de Meyranne, a great resort for reed- 

 birds, lying a few miles to the south and adjacent to the east 

 bank of the Grand Rhone. One portion of this great marsh 

 was covered with a luxuriant growth of tussocks of sedge, 

 which offered the only likely haunts for the aquatic Rallidae 

 that we had seen. On the occasion of our first visit 

 we were unprepared to enter this cover, not having our 

 wading-boots with us. On the second we found that the 

 waters, owing to heavy rain, had risen two feet, and we were 

 quite unable to approach the desired goal, which was most 

 probably partially submerged. Such of the birds of the 

 Marais de Meyranne as are worthy of mention have their 

 place in the list which forms the concluding portion of this 

 contribution ; the only species that need be specially men- 

 tioned here being the Penduline Titmouse — a bird generally 

 considered to be somewhat rare and extremely local in 

 France, which was found to be not uncommon on the 

 wooded margins of the ditches communicating with this 

 marsh. 



La Crau is a very remarkable stony plain, 30,000 acres 

 in extent, lying some twelve miles E.S.E. of Aries, and 

 extending in a southerly direction towards the Golfe de Fos 

 and the Etang de Berre. It is the Campi Lapidei of the 

 Romans. So extraordinary is this rough wilderness of 

 stones that it excited the interest of such early writers as 

 Strabo and iEschylus, the latter of whom ascribes to it the 

 site of the great battle between Hercules and the Ligurians, 

 when, after the hero had exhausted his arrows, Zeus rained 



