Notes from Marocco. 55 



their surrounding gardens. Both the Common and Lesser 

 Kestrels were seen plentifully here, and a duskj^ Bulbul 

 {Pycnonotus barbatm) in the gardens below. 



Accompanied by three or four Moorish youths from the 

 village and the soldier who had guided rae from Tetuan, we 

 thoroughly searched the cliffs for nests and found a Falcon's 

 {Falco punicus) with two fully-grown young, and several 

 empty Kestrels^ from which the young had flown. In the 

 caverns numerous Eock- Doves lived, and flew in and out in 

 flocks when disturbed. 



The midday meal was eaten in the shade of a huge fallen 

 rock and shared with my companions, who especially 

 appreciated the wine of the infidel, while the soldier made 

 capital shooting among the Rock-Doves which kept flying in 

 and out of the holes in the cliff behind. This cliff was of a 

 most curious formation, about 20 feet high, and composed 

 entirely of a mass of petrified leaves, wood, and other 

 vegetable matter. It was honeycombed with holes of all 

 sizes, the hollow remains of boughs, the bark of which 

 had petrified while the interior had rotted away ; and 

 these holes were now occupied by Rock-Doves, Starlings 

 {Sturnus unicolor), and Jackdaws, all busily engaged in 

 nesting-operations. In a niche of the rock close above my 

 head was a small nest like a Tree-Creeper's, with five white 

 eggs speckled with red at the larger end, but I could not 

 catch a glimpse of the birds belonging to it. 



On another day I went by land to Cape Negro, intending 

 to pass the night in the watch-tower on the summit. On the 

 way there, across the palmetto-covered plain lying between 

 Tetuan and the Cape, was a clump of ancient olive-trees 

 growing in a marshy piece of jungle and tenanted by a 

 colony of White Storks, the gigantic nests of which, two or 

 three in a tree, could be seen from afar. Most of the nests 

 now contained small young ones; in one, however, the 

 young were fully grown, and another nest had not yet been 

 laid in. Usually the old birds would not leave the nests 

 until I had climbed up and scrambled over the edge. A 

 pair of Ravens also had a nest in one of the trees ; this and 



