CHAPTER VI 

 Notes from Mediterranean Journals 



THE extracts which follow are Lord Lilford's journals of 

 cruises in the Mediterranean in the years 1874, 1878- 

 1879, and 1882. 



This does not, however, exhaust the voyages he made ; 

 the absent links are, therefore, very kindly supplied as 

 follows by one who was often his companion at sea, and 

 in many ornithological days in Spain. 1 



" 1869, April 2oth. Lilford met me at Seville, having come from 

 London. On the 23rd we drove very early to Algaba, a small pueblo 

 east of Seville, and each killed our first great bustard. On the 26th 

 we started by steamer at 5 a.m. for Coria, a town some few miles 

 down the Guadalquivir, and thence drove with Manuel and his son! 

 in a carro to the Palacio of the Goto del Rey, a wearisome journey, 

 lasting till six in the evening ; the carro was a covered country 

 cart with wooden wheels, which creaked without cessation, and the 

 covering was so low we had to squat or lie on the poles, which 

 formed the floor, a painful position. The Palacio was a ramshackle 

 place, once a shooting box of the Royal Goto, capable of accommo- 

 dating eight sportsmen. Our cooking, etc., was done by Lilford's 



1 Lieut.-Colonel L. Howard L. Irby, author of The Ornithology 

 of the Straits of Gibraltar. 



