Notes on Gran Canaria. 25 



I also noticed three Common Swallows skimming along 

 the Barranco at Telde^ and afterwards an occasional solitary 

 specimen might be seen over the gardens round Las Palraas. 

 But the Swallow and House Martin are only spring stragglers. 

 The islands are out of their line of migration, and the few 

 wanderers who may have been driven thither do not gene- 

 rally remain more than a day or two. I noticed a small 

 flock of House Martins hunting down on the mountain-side ; 

 but they were gone in the evening, and I never met with a 

 Martin elsewhere. A Swallow which I obtained was of our 

 common English type {Hirundo rustica), with the pale lower 

 parts ; but I saw one in the hands of the Orotava bird-dealer 

 about as dark as H. savignii, Mr. Godman found the Swallow 

 breeding in Tenerife, and, in contrast with its accidental 

 appearance in Canaria, I noticed it daily and in some plenty 

 in Teneriffe. 



From Aguimes we made a long day's ramble by Sardina 

 across a desolate volcanic plain towards Maspalomas, the 

 southern point of the island. Our plans did not allow us to 

 spend an additional day here ; but I was not aware of what 

 I afterwards discovered, that on the desert-tract before 

 us is the home of tbe Trumpeter Bullfinch {Pyrrhula githa- 

 ginea) and of the Cream-coloured Courser [Cur sorius g alli- 

 ens), of both of which specimens are in Las Palmas Museum, 

 obtained near Maspalomas. The ground is admirably suited 

 for them, and also faces the island of Fuerteventura, which 

 is here in sight, and may be looked on as the headquarters 

 of these desert-loving birds. Numbers of the little Black 

 Swift [Cypselus un'icolor) were playing over the plain, at a 

 great height ; but these, with a few Kestrels and an occa- 

 sional Neophron, were the only signs of bird-life we noticed. 



But when, turning again northward under the fine peak 

 of lataga, we zigzagged up the gorge of Sitio de Arriba 

 towards Tirajana and the Paso de la Plata, with the Pico de 

 las Nieves rising 6300 feet above it, we were indeed re- 

 warded. The scenery was a strange blending of the most 

 savage rocks, everywhere seeming as though the wreck of 

 some convulsion of yesterday, with the richest semitropical 



