Island of Pahna. 75 



3000 feet high. The soil all the way to the south point is 

 rich and well cultivated, vines, fruit-trees of all kinds, 

 tobacco, onion, and maize being the principal crops. But 

 there were not the birds we wanted. Plenty of Ravens, 

 Choughs, Rock Doves, Pipits, Canaries, Linnets, Buntings, 

 and Goldfinches, — only the birds that accompany cultivation. 

 And after we had reached the western crest, and rode for 

 hours northwards along the heights, though we had a highly 

 developed agricultural country stretching from the heights 

 to the shore, its very richness became monotonous and un- 

 interesting. At length, towards evening, as we were nearing 

 the N.W. corner of the island, we saw in front of us the 

 beginning of a real pine-forest, not straggling trees like 

 those of the Caldera. Our destination was a straggling 

 village of isolated farmsteads, each in the centre of its own 

 vineyard. We were received by the village shopkeeper, who 

 did his best for us and put us up tressel-beds behind the 

 counter. The pine-forests extend for many miles on the 

 higher part of the outer side of the Caldera, right round 

 from the N.W. to the N.E. of the island • and here is the 

 true home of the Palma Titmouse, though Mr. Meade- 

 Waldo did twice find it beyond the limits of the pine. 



The only other birds which seemed plentiful in the pine- 

 forest were the Chiffchaff and the Goldcrest and, near its 

 outskirts, the Blackbird. Our day's ride along the top of 

 the Cumbre, skirting the pine-forest, in fact, on the rim of 

 the old crater, was magnificent, though long, and I know 

 nothing so grand in Tenerife as the view across the Cal- 

 dera from one of the highest points of its rim, the Pico 

 de Muchachio, 7600 feet above the sea. The rim looked 

 very even all round, as though we were standing on the 

 edge of a titanic boat. At first it was quite clear, and we 

 looked down 5200 feet on to the farms and fields we had 

 visited two days before. It required a young and cool head 

 to look down that precipice from the saddle on a path not 

 more than a yard wide. I preferred to dismount and lie 

 down to peep. I am not aware that in any other part of the 

 world have I ever looked down a cliff sheer for more than 



