Notes on Gran Canaria. 15 



crests from 5700 ft. to 6300 ft. high. No forest clothes the 

 slopes of Grau Canaria. Every available patch of land is 

 laid under cultivation^ and the Spaniards, ignoi'ant of the 

 value of forests, of which there are so few in their mother- 

 land, are ruthlessly destroying for charcoal the isolated 

 patches of primaeval timber which here and there remain. 



Monday sufficed for hotel arrangements and a walk of 

 three miles out towards the interior, on a finely engineered 

 road, over as dreary and rugged a volcanic spur as could be 

 imagined, so soon as I had passed through the gardens and 

 palm-groves which encircle the city. The Spanish Sparrow 

 seemed to monopolize these, save for a few Pallid Swifts 

 rapidly darting about. The open hillside has absolutely no 

 turf or smaller herbage, but is sparsely clad with bushes of 

 various species of Euphoi'bia, the only examples of vegetable 

 life. Birds there were none save several Kestrels, all males, 

 keenly on the look-out for the small black lizards which 

 abound among the cinders, and a few of the Canary Pipit 

 {Anthus bertheloti) , with which I here made my first acquaint- 

 ance. I have little to add to Capt. Savile Reid's description 

 of this bird. I rarely saw two together, but individuals are 

 scattered over every part of the country, whatever its cha- 

 racter. I found them in all the islands, alike among the 

 cinders, in the fields, on the roadsides, in the open spaces in 

 the forests, and even on the Cumbres, the desert bare 

 plateau above the limit of ordinary vegetation. It is the 

 one bird of the islands which seems to maintain itself every- 

 where, and is comparatively indifiierent to the presence of 

 man, simply running along before the pedestrian and some- 

 times perching on a tree. Later in the season I found its 

 nest more than once, not differing from that of our Meadow 

 Pipit, and with similarly marked eggs. 



The next morning I started with two English friends for 

 a few days in the interior, fearing that I had made a mistake, 

 ornithologically, in choosing Gran Canaria for my debut 

 among the islands. We went by diligence to Arucas, among 

 the mountains on the north side of the island. The carre- 

 tero, or carriage road, was splendidly constructed, and the 



