On the Birds of Nakl Island. 29 



/. tf ad. Deelfontein, Aug. 6, 1902. 



g. 6 ; h, i. $ pull. Deelfontein, Sept. 23, 1902. 



The young birds agree with the description given by 

 Mr. Hargitt. They are very much like the adults, but duller 

 red underneath, and have the fore-neck and chest mottled 

 with ashy bars, and the light bands on the tail wider and 

 more irregular. 



[This Woodpecker was fairly common in the mountains, 

 resembling our Green Woodpecker in most of its habits. 

 It is very active in its ways, and is rather shy, with a cry like 

 the alarm-note of the " Klip-bok." Two or three eggs were 

 found in a hole made in a " sluit "-wall ; there was no lining 

 to the nest, which seemed to have been made by the birds 

 themselves.] 



[To be continued.] 



II. — The Birds of Nakl Island, on the Coast of Syria. 

 By J. H. Stenhouse, M.B., R.N., H.M.S. ' Hotspur.' 



Along the coast of Palestine and Syria outlying islands are 

 few and far between, and suitable breeding-places for sea- 

 birds are correspondingly scarce. However, at Tripoli in 

 Syria, a line of coral-reefs runs out from the harbour to 

 form the southern border of the bay, and, after being inter- 

 rupted by a narrow deep-water channel, terminates, five 

 miles from the town, in three small islands. The largest of 

 these is Nakl, the other two are called Sanani and Ramkine, 

 the last having a lighthouse on it. Of these three islands, 

 Nakl- (twenty feet high, circular in shape, and about five 

 hundred yards across) and Sanani are composed of coral- 

 rock and sand, and are covered with a fair growth of coarse 

 grasses and Salso/a, while Ramkine is forty feet high, rocky, 

 and much more bare. 



I have visited Nakl Island on two occasions : the first 

 time on July 4th, 1893, and the second on June 20, 1895, 

 both during stays of the Mediterranean Fleet at Tripoli. 

 In the summer months the imbat or sea-breeze blows daily 



