AND PORTO SANTO. 29 



the narrow, rugged margins of these awful precipices. All prospect 

 was shut out by the steep rocks, which the last winding of the 

 ravine placed at our backs; every passage appeared blocked up; 

 there was no distance but in height, and it seemed as if no extra- 

 neous thought were to be admitted, whilst we contemplated the 

 majesty of nature. There is a lower stratum of the red tufa 

 nearly horizontal, covered by a considerable depth of basalt ; above 

 is a second stratum of the red tufa, dipping raj^idly to the south. 

 This ravine is inhabited by that beautiful species of owl, the strix 

 flainmea. The tutinegro, so much admired for the melody of its note, 

 is a species of nightingale, (curruca, Bechst.) ^ one third less than 

 that of Europe. I saw another and more curious bu'd, fig. 28, but 

 I doubt if it is a native of the island. The outHne of the beak 

 most resembles that of the widow-bird, (vidua, Cuv.) but the 

 commissure is situated like that of the grakle, (gracula, Cuv.) 

 immediately beneath the nostril, and forms a much deeper angle ; 

 it evidently belongs to the conirostres of Cuvier, and I should place 

 it under the name of goniaphea, between frmgilla and cori/thus". 

 I could not but remark the simplicity of the corn-mills which are 

 pretty frequent on the margin of tliis torrent, every man being 

 now allowed to grind his own corn, or his neighbour's, Avhereas, 

 before the constitution, it was a monoply inherited by a single 

 noble family, whose agents charged three times the present price. 

 The two stones are hewn out of the columnar basalt, and from the 

 vast fall and body of water (conducted through a wooden shvite) 

 which they can aflPord, they use but one single cross bar or wheel, 



' See Bowdich's Introduction to the Ornithology of Cuvier, p. 40. It is of an olive 

 colour, with a black patch on its head, feeds on guavas, figs, and worms, rests in 

 trees, and sings by day. I should name it, c. melanocephala. 



' The upper mandible closes over the lower, and the middle toe is longer than the 

 others; the whole bird is black, with the exception of the head, which is azure. 

 G. leucocephala. 



