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



1 



tame, but it seems occasionally to suffer at the hands of the 

 inhabitants, as I saw it hung as a scarecrow in the newly- 

 planted potatoe-fields. They perch freely among the pines, 

 and breed in the rocky sides of the barrancos ; the nest is 

 usually placed in the top of a cave, I took two eggs out of 

 a nest, in which were also two newly hatched young, in a 

 little cave at the very bottom of the Caldera. 1 was carried 

 across the stream on the shoulders of one of our guides, and 

 standing on them was able to reach the nest, the old ones 

 swearing at me all the time from a distance of a few yards. 

 It seems almost incredible that this bird should not have ex- 

 tended its range to the other islands. When on the Cumbre, 

 with a sea of clouds below us, the mountain-tops of Gomera 

 and Tenerife looked a mere step across, and as the Chough 

 would go, would be only some twenty-five miles distant. 

 They looked so close to us that we were at first uncertain 

 whether they were not the other ends of La Palma. 



The Chough has not spread to Gomera or Tenerife, and it 

 will seem equally strange if the Kite and the Neophron, both 

 coiamon in the latter islands, have not extended to Palma. 

 We saw neither of these birds during our visit, although con- 

 tinually on the look out ; and I was especially keen to see 

 them, as on asking about them of the people they none of 

 them recognized the name of Milauo or Guirre, but all knew 

 the Common Buzzard, Aquililla. One or two who had been 

 in Fuerteventura knew the Neophi-on, which is there very 

 common, and a few who had been in Tenerife knew the 

 Kite, but they agreed that they had not seen it in La Palma. 

 Our ten days' trip was far too short a time to give more than 

 a glance at the birds of this island, but it was most enjoyable, 

 notwithstanding certain drawbacks in the shape of most 

 filthy quarters on one occasion. If I had seen nothing else, 

 finding Columba laurivora repaid me, to say nothing of pro- 

 curing my living specimen, for which I have tried so long. 

 The Chaffinch and Tit, too, are most interesting additions to 

 the Canarian avifauna. Everything in La Palma was earlier 

 than in Tenerife. On April 14th we got ripe peaches ; they 

 were the exception, but the main crop was on the point of 



