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



almost perpendicular slopes covered with scrub, and it is espe- 

 cially fond of the ledges in the steep sides of the barrancos, 

 where ferns grow. On these ledges it nests ; it was, however, 

 only just thinking of breeding in the end of April. The native 

 sportsmen say that when the cherries are ripe the " Rabiles " 

 come down to them, and that then they shoot numbers. This 

 Pigeon has a very peculiar walk, marching along with a long 

 swinging gait, raising its tail and bowing its head at every 

 step ; it can, however, run quickly, like a Partridge. A fine 

 old male that I have in my aviary has given me many oppor- 

 tunities of studying its actions, and I have had many wild 

 birds walking about quite close to me. My bird was secured 

 with a shot in his head and another in his intestines, from both 

 of which he quickly recovered, but remained almost sense- 

 less, and had to be crammed for three weeks ; he is now in 

 perfect health and fairly tame, but won't touch his natural 

 food, and prefers wheat and hempseed to anything ; he eats 

 large quantities of green rape. The principal food of these 

 Pigeons in La Palma is the fruit of the til-tree and the 

 vinatigo. 



I heard and saw plenty of Columha bollii ; they frequented 

 the higher mountains, as in Goraera, and the larger tracts of 

 forest. I shot two fine males, just to identify them for cer- 

 tain, as a man had told us they had a ring round their necks ; 

 he meant the copper-coloured feathers on each side of the 

 neck. Although the native sportsmen tell me that they shoot 

 a great many more Columba lauHvora than C. bollii, I sus- 

 pect there are really many more of the latter, there being so 

 much more ground suited to their habits. 



The first day, besides solving the Pigeon question, we pro- 

 cured a very interesting form of Chaffinch. Canon Tristram 

 shot the first two examples, and I soon afterwards shot two 

 more. They differed from FringiUa tintillon in the green on 

 the rump being entirely wanting, the blue slate-colour 

 extending over the whole of the back and being of a slightly 

 lighter shade. The lower breast and abdomen, instead of 

 being buff, is pure white, and the green on the wing-coverts 

 is wanting. This bird^ of which we obtained some twenty 



