DAULIAS LUSCINIA. 47 



gardens around the town. Numbers also migrate, arriving 

 during October and November, departing in February and 

 March." Favier. 



Common throughout Andalucia in winter. The Robin only 

 comes to Gibraltar from about the middle of October to the 

 middle of March, but then in considerable numbers. They are 

 resident in the Cork-wood, nesting abundantly in April, where, 

 one day in May, my attention was attracted by the chattering 

 and scolding of two Robins, evidently in a great state of alarm 

 and excitement ; close by them was a palmetto bush, to and 

 from which they were flying, hovering over it, but not settling. 

 At first I thought a cat, or perhaps an ichneumon, was lying up ; 

 but tin peeping quietly into it, saw a snake, some three feet long, 

 in the act of swallowing a half-fledged Robin at the edge of 

 its nest. I drew back a pace, and fired a small charge of 

 dust-shot into the reptile's head, cutting it nearly in half. The 

 snake, however, had disposed of all the young birds ; so, though 

 too late to save them, the parents were rescued, as no doubt they 

 would have shared the fate of their progeny but for my inter- 

 ference ; the snake I hung up in the nearest bush, "pour 

 encourager les autres," the old Robins all the time watching my 

 proceedings ; and it is to be hoped they were able to under- 

 stand that their loss was partially avenged. The quantity of 

 young birds Robins, Nightingales, and similar ground-nesting 

 Warblers which are destroyed by snakes and lizards must 

 be very great ; but many of these birds in Andalucia build 

 their nests in bushes at some distance from the ground, no 

 doubt to avoid the reptiles. 



Chin, throat, and breast orange- chest nut. 



Young in first plumage mottled, each feather orange-buff tipped with 

 black. Length 5| inches. 



21. Daulias luscinia (Linnaeus). The Nig-hting-ale. 

 Moorish. Mula el hasan (Owner of Beauty, Favier), Umm el 

 hasan (Mother of Beauty), Spanish. Ruisenor. 



