ERYTHACUS RUBECULA. 83 
I imagine this species must pass further to the east, as 
about Gibraltar I only saw one alive, which I shot on the 
1st of March, as it was perched on some rushes in an old 
"salina'' near Palmones ; another, shot in November 1873, 
at the same place, is in the possession of Lieutenant Reid. 
I have seen specimens from Seville and Granada. 
The adult males have a white spot in the middle of the 
blue throat. 
83. Erythacus RUBECULA, Linn. The Robin. 
Moorish. Humar sidri. Spanish. Petirojo. 
" Is resident near Tangier, and very common in all the 
gardens around the town. Numbers also migrate, arriving 
during October and November, departing in February and 
March." — Favier. 
Common throughout Andalucia in winter. The Robin 
only comes to Gibraltar from about the middle of October to 
the middle of March, but then in considerable numbers. They 
are resident in the Cork-wood, nesting abundantly in April, 
where, one day in May, my attention was attracted by the 
chattering and scolding of two Robins, evidently in a great 
state of alarm and excitement ; close by them was a palmetto 
bush, to and from which they were flying, hovering over it, 
but not settling. At first I thought a cat, or perhaps an 
ichneumon, was lying up ; but on peeping quietly into it, I 
saw a snake, some three feet long, in the act of swallowing a 
half-fledged Robin at the edge of its nest. I drew back a 
pace, and fired a small charge of dust-shot into the reptile^s 
head, cutting it nearly in half. The brute, however, had 
disposed of all the young birds ; so, though too late to save 
them, the parents were rescued, as no doubt they would have 
shared the fate of their progeny but for my interference. 
I hung the snake up in the nearest bush, '^ pour encourager 
les autres," the old Robins all the time watching my pro- 
ceedings ; and I hope they were able to understand that their 
loss was partially avenged. The quantity of young birds — 
Robins, Nightingales, and similar ground-nesting birds — 
which are destroyed by snakes must be very great. 
G 2 
