10 Canon H. B. Tristram — Ortiitholoyical 



country remiurled me nuicli of Malta, with its careful 

 terraced cultivation and the absence of wood, except orange 

 and other fruit trees. The next striking feature was the 

 immense number of reservoirs and the carefully constructed 

 channels for irrigation. The Spanish Sparrow, Linnet, and 

 Goldfinch were the only birds noticed. Arrived at the little 

 town, we were set down with our baggage in the market- 

 place and left to our own devices. As my companions 

 knew not a word of Spanish, and I little more than they, 

 we felt rather forlorn. However we soon found a man 

 who volunteered to take our baggage on his donkey to 

 Firgas, the village which we proposed to make our head- 

 quarters for two or three days; it was only a two hours' 

 walk, across a well-cultivated, irregular, upland plain. 

 Berthelot's Pipit was the first Canarian specimen I procured 

 in this walk, then the Common Bunting, which abounded, 

 uttering his spluttering note from the stems of the asphodel. 

 I put up a Norfolk Plover out of shot, and vainly stalked it 

 for half an hour. 



At Firgas, finding no fonda to receive us, we were at last 

 taken in by a peasant, wjiose quaint cottage possessed an 

 upper storey and a balcony, and whose wife fortunately had 

 been in service and was a good cook, while our host pro- 

 fessed to know well the Barranco de la Virgen, or Virgin's 

 Ravine, which I intended to explore the next day. Our 

 quarters were clean and free fron:3a,vermin, as were all I 

 experienced in all the islands, with'but one exception. 



Next morning, with my host for guide and porter carry- 

 ing my provisions and botany-box, I started at daybreak for 

 the barranco, my friends making another expedition to the 

 Pico Osorio. Half an hour brought us to the edge of the 

 barranco, into which we descended by a breakneck path. 

 The splendour and novelty of the flora in the sides of the 

 cliffs were absolutely bewildering, but I must confine myself 

 to the birds. 



I soon found that if there were neither rarities nor abund- 

 ance, there was variety enough to satisfy the keenest natu- 

 ralist. The Egyptian Vulture was never out of sight. 



