152 Mr. A. B. Brooke on the . 



16. Falco eleonor^e. 



" Toro " and " Vacca," two barren uninhabited twin rocks, 

 rising precipitously out of the sea, off the S.W. corner of Sar- 

 dinia, form perhaps the principal headquarters of these beau- 

 tiful Falcons in the Mediterranean. Vacca (which I visited) 

 lies eight miles from the Sardinian coast, and two miles 

 south of the small thinly inhabited island of " St. Antioco." 

 Its length is about a quarter of a mile, its breadth not quite 

 so much. " Toro " is, I believe, rather the larger island of 

 the two, and is situated seven or eight miles further south. 

 Owing to the extreme difficulty of landing, except in the 

 calmest weather, these islands are seldom visited, and then 

 only by fishermen, who occasionally land to dry their nets. 



The precipitous cliffs of " Vacca," especially those on the 

 east side of the rock, are the favourite haunts of the 

 Eleonora Falcon ; and here they pass the entire year and 

 breed. It was early in May when I explored these cliffs ; and 

 although this Falcon is not supposed to breed until much later 

 in the year, yet I feel almost certain that they were nesting 

 at the time of my visit. If this be not so, I do not know 

 how to account for the large number of birds (about twenty 

 or twenty-five pairs) that I found continually on the rock 

 during the day-time persistently returning and flying into 

 the same holes, and that after having been fired at, and 

 wounded, as was the case with several individuals. The man- 

 ner also in which they flew in circles, screaming over my head, 

 exhibited a similar annoyance to that displayed by Peregrines 

 when their nest is disturbed. I also fancied several times 

 that I heard the young birds squealing in their nests. I tried 

 unsuccessfully to make this certain by reaching the breed- 

 ing-holes, but found that it was absolutely impossible without 

 the ropes and tackle necessary for such an undertaking. 

 On the top of the cliffs I found numerous chosen places where 

 the Falcons picked their prey previously to carrying it to 

 their young. The remnants consisted solely of the remains of 

 Insessores, which must have been obtained on the opposite 

 shores of Sardinia, as the only species observed by me on 

 Vacca was the common Wheatear (S. cenanthe), of which I 



