Island of P alma. 71 



bold , but through a comparatively bare country, zigzagging 

 across tremendous barrancos, with their steep sides full of 

 caverns, and fine Canary pines clinging to the cliffs wherever 

 they could find a foothold. All these swarmed with Choughs 

 (Pyrrhocorax graculus), now busily employed in domestic 

 duties, and perching indiscriminately on the ledges and on the 

 pines. The ridges between each barranco are carefully cul- 

 tivated, and cottages and gardens bright with geraniums, 

 roses, and fuchsias were scattered about in every possible spot, 

 while the rugged track was fringed with the overhanging 

 boughs of fast-ripening and tempting-looking peaches. The 

 Choughs stalked about the little fields, like Rooks at home, 

 and a couple of specimens were at once secured. The Swifts 

 (Cypselus unicolor and C. pallidus) dashed up and down the 

 barrancos, the latter more numerous lower down, the former 

 affecting the higher parts of the mountain -sides. As we 

 ascended, the barrancos became less deep, and at length we 

 turned up a path on the crest between two gullies, and soon 

 entered the forest, merely scrub at first. Half an hour's ride 

 through the dense underwood brought us into the true forest, 

 and under a magnificent pine-tree, which overshadowed a 

 copious spring, we dismounted and picketed our horses. 

 Here we were certain from several signs that the Pigeons 

 must come to drink. Through the glen by our side flowed 

 a little perennial stream, overshadowed with the dense foliage 

 of the teiJ, the laurel, the vinatigo, the ebony, and many 

 others. Meade- Waldo at once proceeded up the glen, and 

 had not left me for many minutes, when a Chaffinch's note 

 caught my ear, and soon I saw the white wing-bars of a bird 

 which crossed from the other side to the pine under which I 

 sat, followed immediately by another. They were evidently 

 courting, and I secured my first pair of Fringilla jjalmce*, of 

 which a figure (PI. III.) is given herewith. Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo observes that the note differs slightly but markedly 

 from that of Fr. tintillon ; and in this he is undoubtedly cor- 

 rect, though I found here, not for the first time, that my 

 hearing is not so good as it was fifty years ago. 

 * [//. Ibis, 1889, pp. 510, 511.— Ed.] 



