263 



you speak to him in passing his house, he always 

 answers by snapping his beak. 



It is also known as the Tawny and Wood-OwU 

 also as the Hooter. 



Some BirDv) IRambles m lEurope. 



{Continued Jrom page 102). 

 By S. H. SneIvI., M.D. 



From Rome we sped away to Florence, and were 

 quite struck with the number of birds singing in the 

 Cascine. Now the Casciue is the Hyde Park of 

 Florence, and is a narrow strip extending for fully two 

 miles along the north bank of the river Arno, and is 

 practically all trees, a very large proportion of these 

 being elms and evergreen oaks. Blackbirds were par- 

 ticularly busy, but we saw no Thrushes. Chaffinches, 

 of course, and now and then a Nightingale in full soug 

 was heard. A few Nuthatches and Creepers were busy 

 on the elm trees. 



From the Piazza Michelangelo, an elevated terrace 

 and public ground on the river bank, opposite to and 

 overlooking the main part of Florence (of which it 

 commands a very fine view, showing up well the 

 peculiar brown tile roofing of the city) we watched 

 House Martins and Swallows in their aerial gambols 

 after food. There were no Swifts here, although in 

 Rome they were very plentiful (of the large brown 

 Alpine species). 



One fine morning in April, we made an expedition 

 to Fiesole, a village mounted on a vine covered hill a 

 thousand feet above Florence. Penetrating into the 

 country beyond, and still at much the same level, at 

 first no birds at all were to be seen, then suddenly, in 



