158 MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 



" Saw the following birds : Kestrel, marsh harrier, kingfisher 

 common swallow, blackbird, song thrush, black-headed warbler, fan- 

 tailed warbler, Cetti's warbler, sedge warbler, marsh warbler, white 

 wagtail, yellow wagtail, skylark, crested lark, calandra, short-toed lark, 

 Spanish sparrow, chaffinch, linnet, goldfinch, jackdaw, magpie, quail, 

 spotted crake, Baillon's crake, water-rail, water-hen, coot, Kentish 

 plover, greenshank, redshank, wood sandpiper, ruff, common snipe, 

 jack snipe, curlew, wigeon, red-crested whistling duck, pochard, 

 tufted duck, Sandwich tern, black-headed gull, herring gull, and several 

 tringa that I could not be sure about. We only shot i quail, 

 i snipe, i spotted crake, i Baillon's crake and one Sandwich tern. 

 Killed a snake, I think Trepidonodus natrix var., without yellow 

 mark at the back of headj several seen. Saw many lizards and a 

 rabbit." 



" March lyd. Fine day. We took a carriage at 

 6.30 a.m., and drove to the Lake of Lentini, about fourteen 

 miles, first across the great plain of Catania, cultivated and 

 now flooded, to the river Simeto ; crossed by a ferry boat, 

 then over about six miles of undulating stony hills. The 

 lake is a great sheet of water with a thick fringe of high 

 reeds. We got a boat which was of no use. Great 

 quantities of fish, mullet and tench, jumping all about us. 

 Did little, for the reasons before mentioned. We remained 

 at and about Catania till March 3Oth, when we sailed for 

 the mouth of the Pantani river, where we went ashore 

 to shoot ; got boats upon the lake on the proper left of 

 stream and penetrated some distance into the reed jungle 

 at the northern end thereof." 



" Besides many of the birds before mentioned, saw golden plover, 

 peewit, solitary snipe, bittern, common heron, teal, garganey, black 

 redstart, green sandpiper, and cormorant. Heard porphyrio and saw a 



