1 92 1.] On the Winter Avifauna of the Camargue. 595 



XXXII. — Some Notes on the Winter Avifauna of the 

 Camargue. By Ludlow GrUiscoM, M.A.'O.CJ., M.B.O.U. ; 

 American Museum of Natural History, New York City. 



For a region which has long been famous as a bird 

 paradise, remarkably liltle has been written about the 

 Camargue, due in part perhaps to its comparative isolation 

 and the primitive living conditions required in so dreary and 

 uninhabited a waste. The classic work on ihis region is the 

 ' Ornithologie du Gard et des Pa\ s circonvoisins^ hj 

 J. Crespon, a rare work published by private subscription in 

 1810, a copy of which I was so fortunate as to obtain in 

 Paris and took with me. It is remarkable for its excellent 

 detailed accounts of habits nnd occurrence of the various 

 species, founded on many years of personal collecting. Two 

 other works appeared shortly thereafter — ' Faune Meridio- 

 nale du Midi de la France^ (Crespon, 1841), an elaboration, 

 chiefly territorial, of his earlier woi'k ; and the ' Uichesses 

 Ornithologiques du Midi de la France' (Jaubert and Barth- 

 elemy-Lapommeraye, 1859). The latter work is chiefly of 

 value for its information about the bird-life of Marseilles and 

 the Riviera, being almost entirely a compilation so far as the 

 ('amargiie is concerned. Crespon's original work is not 

 quoted by them, otldly enough. In 'The IMS'* for April 

 1895 and October 1898, Mr. Wm. Eagle Clarke published 

 two very interesting and valuable papers on this region, 

 based on visits in jMay and early June, 1894, and {)art of 

 September, 1896. The first paper contained a map and so 

 excellent and adequate an account of the topography of the 

 region, that repetition would be useless, and readers are 

 referred to it for information on these points. 



I have wandered for many years in Europe with an 

 increasing determination to visit the Camargue. Twice I 

 had been in Aries, but was absolutely unable to find the time 

 for the briefest kind of a side-trip. While with the 

 American Expeditionary Forces in 1918, a conversation 



