742 Mr. C. B, Ticeliurst on the Birds noticed 



distance. We were then over one hundred miles from land. 

 The next day, passing through the Bay, we saw only one or 

 two Gannets and some immatnre Gulls. On the 17th we were 

 running down the Portuguese coast with land never more 

 than fifty miles distant, and Gulls were more numerous; 

 several adult and immature Lesser Black-backs and some 

 adult Yellow-legged Herring-Gulls followed the boat all day. 

 The latter birds were easily identifiable, as when they sailed 

 close over head their yellow legs were conspicuous : an 

 immature Gannet was the only other species seen. 



The next day we passed close to Cape St. Vincent, and here 

 a Hoopoe was brought to me which had settled on the ship 

 exhausted. It had nothing in its gizzard and the ovary was 

 slightly enlarged, so the bird must have flown a considerable 

 distance to be so exhausted as not to be able to reach land, 

 only two miles distant; moreover, the weather was calm. 

 Two other birds, which I did not see, settled on the ship 

 during the day, and soon flew to the north, so that even if 

 they had come from the nearest point on the African coast 

 a hundred and fifty to two hundred miles distant, and their 

 point of exit may have been much further off, they were 

 performing a long sea journey instead of crossing the Straits. 

 But it may be that their objectives were the river valleys 

 of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir, up which, perhaps, there 

 are big migration-routes. These records may seem little to 

 base any theory on, but it must be remembered that at sea, 

 as on land, for every bird one observes migrating there are 

 probably hundreds of others on the same course which are 

 not met with. The only other birds seen this day were an 

 immature Great Black-backed Gull and an adult Puffinus 

 kuhli. 



On the 19th of April we were at Gibraltar, and having all the 

 morning ashore, I started early and walked to the Carboneros 

 hills at the head of the bay near Campamento. The cha- 

 racter of the ground here has altered much since Col. Irby's 

 time, and, as all the cork-woods have gone, many birds have 

 gone with them. Round the foot of the hills is a sandy 

 waste covered with coarse grass, and dotted about here and 



