238 MEblTERRANEAN NOTES 



small gun and the bird being near I managed to miss, 

 or at all events, not to bag him. Some Neapolitan 

 fishermen came alongside, with an enormous skate, 

 a nurse hound (Squalus canicula), a large fish of the 

 shark family, which I cannot make out, and some fine 

 lobsters. We found a falcon's nest, with young, in a hole 

 of the cliff near the south-west point of Maddalena, and 

 saw one old and the young birds, but had not the means 

 for a siege. Several rock doves, of which T. shot one, 

 and as we lay ofF the rocks an Audouin's gull hovered over 

 us and fell to T.'s gun. We saw another of these at a 

 distance, an osprey devouring a fish on a big boulder stone, 

 a Bonelli's eagle high in air, and a blue rock-thrush. After 

 we came aboard another Audouin fell to T.'s gun over the 

 stern. All these three specimens, although apparently in 

 fully adult plumage, are somewhat smaller than those from 

 Toro and Alboran, and the legs and feet are of a dusky 

 olive green instead of dark lead colour, as in the former 

 specimens. They are by no means abundant, but seem to 

 be much Jess wary here than the herring gull. 



" We went away to the falcon's nest mentioned before, 

 and then cruised off round a point on the mainland into 

 the bay of Trana and back again, lunched in a little cove 

 on eastern side of this point, where the telegraphic cable 

 lands from Maddalena ; went away to a sandy beach at 

 the head of Agincourt road, shoved the dinghy over the 

 beach into a small river and proceeded as far as we could 

 get up it, but were soon stopped by shallow water. This 



