Notes on Gran Catiaria. 21 



I had been attracted by its note in the top of a laurel tree, 

 was a Chiffchaff. I then noticed its yellow legs and feet, 

 and though I have taken a few specimens with rather darker 

 tarsi, I never found one with dark brown tarsi approaching 

 our bird in intensity of colour. The eggs do not differ from 

 those of our Chiffchaff, and the architecture and lining of 

 its domed nest is the same. Why it should use such a pro- 

 fusion of feathers for the lining in so warm a climate I do 

 not pretend to explain. But I never heard of the nest being 

 placed on or near the ground. All those which I secured, 

 by the help of boys, were in the crowns of palm trees, and 

 one high up in a laurel tree. I did not succeed in obtaining 

 any nests in the forests of Teneriffe and Gomera, where the 

 bird was extremely abundant, but always resorting to the 

 higher branches of trees, and many a specimen I brought 

 down fancying I had got a Goldcrest. Its song consists of 

 four notes ending in a long trill ; but later in the season one 

 heard more frequently the " chip chip " of our own bird, 

 often interjaculated between the staves of the longer refrain. 

 Its wing-formula also differs from that of the European 

 Phylloscopus riffus. While our bird has its third and fourth 

 primaries longest and equal, and the second intermediate 

 between the seventh and eighth, though sometimes, but 

 rarely, nearly equalling the sixth, the Canarian bird has 

 always the fourth and fifth longest, and the second shorter 

 than the eighth. This holds good in all the twelve speci- 

 mens I have examined, and from all three islands of Canaria, 

 Teneriffe, and Gomera. I have therefore no hesitation in 

 claiming for this bird specific rank, and propose to name it 



Phylloscopus fortunatus, sp. nov. 



Ph. Phylloscopo rufo (Bechst.)^P/i. collybitce (V.) similli- 

 mus, sed tarsis et pedibus pallide flavidis : remigibus 

 quarto et quinto, nee tertio et quarto, longissimis : et 

 remige secundo octavo breviore. 

 Hab. Insulae Canarienses. 



Heading up the valley near Valleseco I returned towards 

 Fir gas through a very rugged but open and richly cultivated 

 country. The slopes were generally terraced, and the bright 



