NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RIVIERA. 211 



Mentone may find within a single day's journey from his home. 

 Then the Labiates have twice as many species as are included in 

 the British flora ; and the Composites, which threaten in time to 

 drive all other competitors into the sea, outnumber their cousins 

 across the channel by nearly two hundred species. 



But, whilst so much may be said in favour of the flora of Mentone 

 — for neither India, Burmah, nor Brazil can produce more beautiful 

 bouquets of wild flowers — the absence of stately trees and dense 

 foliage is remarkable throughout the Riviera. The only deciduous 

 trees of any size to be seen, are an elm tree at Gorbio — planted, so 

 an inscription says, in 171 1 — and here and there a few Spanish 

 chestnuts, which would only rank as second-class trees in England. 

 Hence the scarcity of birds along the Mediterranean shores, for 

 they cannot escape the prying eyes of chasseurs, who are ever on 

 the watch to kill them, great and small, as lawful game. The pines 

 and olives, the orange and lemon trees and vineyards which cover 

 the country, afford also indifferent shelter for nests, and, after 

 exploring the hills for miles, it is difficult to find a hedgerow or 

 thicket where even a thrush would care to lay her eggs. Rooks 

 and wood-pigeons are unknown, and only occasional!}^ a pair of 

 ravens may be seen circling over some tremendous precipice, where 

 their young ones can be reared in safety. In Spring, before the 

 so-called sportsmen have found them out, birds rarely seen in 

 England occasionally appear, and delight the eyes of naturalists 

 who visit the Riviera. The beautiful and very conspicuous wood- 

 chat shrike lingered for some days in an orchard attached to my 

 villa at Pau, and on several occasions I saw the hoopoe and golden 

 oriole in the neighbourhood. 



But, notwithstanding the scarcity of birds, the naturalist who 

 passes the Winter at Mentone need not find the time pass heavy on 

 his hands. The geologist may examine a hundred miles of quarry 

 along the Corniche road, hewn out of the solid rock. The palaeon- 

 tologist may speculate on the bones and flints found in the limestone 

 caves close to the town. The entomologist may chase swallow- 



