430 Mr. E. G. Meade- Waldo on the 



Don Anatael Cabrera has added to his interesting collec- 

 tion of birds killed in the neighbourhood of Laguna an ex- 

 ample of Ardetta sturmi and several of Porzana maruetta and 

 Porzana parva, which appear to be pretty regular winter 

 visitors to the ditches round Laguna. I spent last summer 

 in the Valle de Guerra, near Laguna, where the Barn Owl 

 (Striw fiammaea), which has generally been considered a 

 scarce bird in the Canaries, was quite common, its shriek 

 being heard every night. I once saw five on the wing 

 together ; they are all large and very dark-coloured birds here. 

 I found in castings of this bird from a cave many more small 

 bird-remains than is usual in this country, also remains of 

 lizards. The Long-eared Owl {Asia vulgaris) I found to be 

 exceedingly numerous on the lava-flows near the sea, where 

 thev inhabit the large candalabra-like Euphorbia canadensis, 

 and* prey principally on lizards ; they breed on the ground 

 in the centre of these practically impenetrable strongholds 

 during the winter, for I procured a young one at the end of 

 January this year, just able to fly. Many birds breed very 

 irregularly in these islands, for in November last a little girl 

 brought me a Thick-knee (CEdicnemus crepitans) still in the 

 down. The distribution of the Shrike (Lanius algeriensis) 

 in Tenerife is rather peculiar. It frequents the hot Eu- 

 phorbia-covevcd slopes close to the sea on the south side of 

 the island; it is almost equally common and resident all 

 the year on the " Cumbre," 5000 to 7000 feet, and is seldom 

 or never seen on the north or west of the island. 



On the 19th of November, 1889, I went to Hierro, calling 

 at Santa Cruz de la Palma on the way, and, as the steamer 

 was obliged to wait all day, I got a mule and rode up to the 

 mountain where I had procured the first Palma Tit (Paruspal- 

 mensis) . Very nearly in the same spot where I shot my first 

 specimen I had the luck to shoot in a few minutes four beauti- 

 ful examples. They came to a call which I always find very 

 effective in bringing up small birds, viz. imitating the cry of 

 a rabbit that a stoat or ferret has got hold of; all the small 

 birds on hearing it come up and utter their alarm-notes. I also 

 shot some Chaffinches {Fringilla palma) . The young males 



