MEDITERRANEAN NOTES 219 



" Fresh birds seen : Accipiter nisus, Strix ftammea, Ardea 

 bubulcus, Gallinula chloropus, Rallus aquaticus" 



"February i8M. Perhaps the most perfect of the 

 many lovely days that we have had. We landed on the 

 Isla Mayor, and went away to the western brazo of the 

 river to look for snipes ; saw very few, but we only 

 brought home one bustard and a blackballed godwit * 

 (Limosa belgica}, which last was the only fresh species 

 which we met with. We saw a good many bustards, 

 cranes, a great many golden plover, five pintailed sand 

 grouse, some curlews and redshanks. We were unlucky 

 altogether, and 1, to my shame, managed not to kill a 

 bustard which gave me a fair chance. Sent the yacht 

 down to the lower end of the Corta ; she left the 

 steam launch for us at the huts at upper end. Bade 

 farewell to la gente at sundown, and rushed down la 

 Corta with a swinging ebb tide ; found the vessel right 

 away below the mouth of Brazo del Este, having had a 

 very narrow escape of being run down by a Spanish 

 steamer at her moorings above. Good Spanish proverb 

 from Vicente : " Al cazador lena y al lenador caza." 



" List of birds observed in Andalucia, February : Vultur monachus, 

 Gyfs fulvus, Neophron percnopterus, Circus ceruginosiis, Circus cyaneus, 

 Buteo vulgaris, Accipiter nisus, Milvus regalts, Falco peregrtnus, F. tin- 

 nunculus, F. cenchris, Strix flammea, Turdus musicus, Ruticilla titys, 



* A wading bird belonging to the Scolopacidce (sandpiper, snipe, 

 and curlew family). It has ceased to breed in England since the 

 -draining of the fens. A winter migrant to Andalucia. 



