172 MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 



with his boat and went away to the isolotti. Found many- 

 birds and eggs ; an interesting day, and no rain to speak 

 of. I brought Antonio and his nephew on board. He 

 tells me that all the stagni were once terra firma and 

 cultivated, but that during some war in the time of the 

 Pisan dominion, some one or other enemy let in the sea 

 water and drowned the country. (Quien sabe?} 



"On the isolotti we found a good many nests and 

 eggs of the common tern. We took about sixty eggs of 

 this species, and also eggs of the little tern. These are 

 the two most abundant species. The sandwich tern is 

 also common, but we found no eggs of it. Saw one 

 solitary black tern (Sterna fissipes}. Found several nests 

 of the common wild duck with eggs, one with young 

 ones, and one nest of three eggs of the Kentish plover, 

 too hard-sat to blow. Prince caught a young duck 

 about half grown, and an old one on the nest. I saw 

 the following species : 



" Osprey, black vulture, marsh harrier, falcon,, 



kestrel, grey crow, calandra, skylark, short-toed lark, 



k 

 stonechat, common bunting, fantailed warbler, Kentish 



plover, coot, water-hen, wild duck, red-crested pochard, 

 herring gull, Sandwich tern, common tern, little tern,, 

 black tern, flamingo, and cormorant. I shot 4 Sandwich 

 tern, 4 common tern, 3 little tern, 2 herring gulls, 2. 

 Kentish plovers, 2 wild ducks. The red-crested pochards- 

 are in large flocks, and do not seem to be breeding, 

 as yet. Prince caught the coots just hatched." 



