74 SOME BIRDS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS 



kneeling down in front of a small shop which faced 

 the house where I was staying ; the number of boxes 

 and packages that were being unloaded from the poor 

 beast might well have filled a cart, and I could not 

 help wondering at what stage the proverbial " last 

 straw " would have had its effect. The whole business 

 was done so silently, the men being bare-footed as well 

 as the camel, that I should have known nothing of the 

 proceedings had it not been for the ringing of a small 

 bell which was suspended from the head-gear of the 

 animal. 



In the more open country about Vilaflor there were 

 many small birds to be seen, commonest among these 

 being perhaps the Triguero, or Wheat-bird, in which 

 may be recognised a familiar English species, the Corn 

 Bunting. These birds were very numerous in almost 

 every part of Tenerife, nesting in the more cultivated 

 portions of the island, where their mechanical note was 

 uttered monotonously again and again. The Spectacled 

 Warbler, too, which is abundant near the coast, finds 

 its way up as high as Vilaflor, though I did not actually 

 see the bird there, but only found its nest, placed in 

 a cistus bush. This looked very pretty amid the 

 white flowers, the eggs much resembling those of our 

 Whitethroat. 



Chiffchaffs were very numerous in Tenerife, and 

 their notes might generally be heard wherever there 

 was a sprinkling of wood. At Vilaflor these birds were 

 nesting in May, the nests being hardly ever placed at 

 a less height than three feet from the ground, and 

 sometimes as high up as ten or twelve feet. Possibly 

 they build them thus in order to keep the eggs more 



