SOUTHERN EUROPE. BIRDS. 35 



annual migrations from Africa, visit nearly all the cen- 

 tral parts of the Continent, and are occasionally carried, 

 by accidental causes, to these islands ; but as we advance 

 northward, they are no longer to be met with. 



(49.) We now come to the third portion of the 

 European province, comprising the south of France, the 

 whole of Spain, Italy, and Turkey, together with the 

 coasts and islands of the Mediterranean Sea, bordering 

 on Northern Africa and Asia Minor. On the quadrupeds 

 of these countries little can be said, as our materials are 

 but scanty. There is no evidence that 4 the large rumi- 

 nating animals, such as the elk, reindeer, stag, roe- 

 buck, &c., exist on the shores of the Mediterranean ; 

 although a small species, probably the fallow deer, is 

 still to be met with in some of the extensive forests of 

 Calabria, and in the vestiges of those which once spread 

 over the mountains of Sicily. But, on the other hand, 

 there is the porcupine, an undoubted native of Italy, 

 still found wild ; and the musmon sheep, already men- 

 tioned, truly belongs to this region. The buffalo lives 

 in Greece and Italy, as if in its native country, although 

 now only seen in a domesticated state. 



(50.) The ornithology of the Mediterranean shores 

 presents many interesting facts. The vultures, which are 

 seldom found northward of the Alps, occur more fre- 

 quently as the climate becomes warmer ; they appear 

 to follow the course of the Apennines in Italy, and of 

 the higher mountains of Spain and Greece ; whence 

 they extend their range on one side to Asia Minor, and 

 on the other to Northern Africa. The imperial eagle 

 (Aquila imperialis Sw.) is chiefly found in Southern 

 Europe, while the golden eagle is more restricted to the 

 colder latitudes. The gigantic owls of the northern 

 regions are here unknown ; but two or three horned 

 species, of diminutive size, follow the migratory flocks 

 of land birds in their annual flights across the Mediter- 

 ranean from Africa. In the extensive family of war- 

 blers (Sylviada Sw.), besides those of Central Europe > 

 D 2 



