686 Brig.-Gon. U.K. Kolham 07i [Ibis, 



Pelecanus onocratalus. 



Only once met with in Crete. 



" (Jandia, 2 December. A beautifully calm day, and 

 sitting majestically on the smooth sea, five huge white 

 Pelicans came slowly swimming under the battlements, 



" An hour later one of my men came to tell me that one 

 of the Pelicans had drifted ashore, and that they had it in 

 the barrack-room ; I found its captors drying it in front of 

 a fire, and trying to feed it from a half-opened tin of 

 sardines from the Canteen, their great man on birds having 

 told them that Pelicans fed on fish. 



" Needless to say the bird died ; it measured nearly 10 ft. 

 across the wings ; primaries black with white shafts, wing- 

 coverts and the scapulars dark brown, w ith chestnut-brown 

 tips to the feathers, back, head and underparts nearly white, 

 leos olive-black. I think it was an immature bird." 



PuffimiB kuhli. 



This species, also Puffimis i/ellouan, were common along 

 the coast. I did not find a nest, but the following experi- 

 ence of cheir breeding, also of Thalassidroma pelagica, on the 

 Island of Filfla, a few miles south of Malta, may be of 

 interest. 



"Malta, 9 May, 1875. Visited Filfla, and found many 

 nests of the Cinereous Shearwater (Piiffinus kuhli), if a 

 slight depression in the ground under boulders can be so 

 named. 



"Their first laying must be early, as every nest contained 

 a young bird of from one to three weeks old. 



" During the day the Shearwaters retire into holes and 

 crevices among the rocks, issuing forth late in the afternoon 

 to feed ; I caught two but set them free, and noticed that 

 owing to their length of wing they had difticulty in rising 

 from level ground and ran to the edge of the clifP, then 

 launched themselves into the air. 



" On 11 July I revisited Filfla, and found any number of 

 nests containing eggs, but nearly all were incubated, though 



