7514 Birds. 



this you get a goodly cistern, and, by means of a hose and Earl's 

 engine, the cold clear water is speedily transferred into a canvass 

 tank in a pinnace. Accordingly in due time come the sailors, and 

 very shortly after their arrival the cranium of the bear is mine. 



Arthur Adams. 

 Shanghai, January 29, 1861. 



Nesting of the Crisped Pelican in Western Greece, — Time was, and not so long 

 ago, when Pelecamis crispus lived in hundreds all the year round, from the rocky 

 promontory of Kourtzolari, hard hy the mouth of the Acheloiis, on the western ex- 

 tremity of the lagoon, to the islands of ^tolico, up its northern arms, and, on the east, 

 to the great mud-flats which mark the limits of the present delta of the Phidaris. 

 Now-a-days a solitary individual may be seen fishing here and there throughout the 

 lagoon, but the small remnant of this once mighty host have made their last stand 

 upon the islands which divide the Gulf of Procopanisto from the Gulf of ^tolico. 

 Here, towards the end of February last, the community of pelicans constructed a group 

 of seven nests, — a sad falling oflf from the year 1858, when thirty-five nests, the 

 remains of which had not then disappeared, were grouped in contiguous proximity 

 upon a neighbouring islet. It needs not the nose of a pointer to discover the locality, 

 even if the large white birds themselves were not a sufficient guide. As we approached 

 the spot in a boat the pelicans left their nests, and, taking to the water, sailed away 

 like a fleet of stately ships, leaving their newly-built establishment in possession of 

 the invader. The boat grounded in two or three feet of mud, and when the party had 

 floundered through this the seven nests were discovered to be empty. A fisherman 

 had plundered them that morning, taking from each nest one egg, all of which we of 

 course recovered. The nests were constructed in a great measure of the old reed 

 palings used by the natives for enclosing the fish, though with these were mixed such 

 pieces of the vegetation of the islet as were suitable for the purpose. The seven nests 

 were contiguous, and disposed in the shape of an irregular cross, the navel of the 

 cross, which was the tallest nest, being about thirty inches high, the two next in line 

 on each side being about two feet high, the two nests forming each arm of the cross a 

 few inches lower, and the two extremes at either end being about fourteen inches from 

 the ground. These latter, it is presumed, were intended for the junior partners of the 

 firm, in the same way that the great bear of nursery tales has a big seat, his wife a 

 middling seat, and the little bear a small seat. The eggs are chalky, like those of the 

 PelecanidiB generally, very rough in texture, and some of them much streaked with 

 blood. — W. H. Simpson, in ' Ibis,' ii. 395. 



Lizard with Bifid Tail. — I happened a short time since to meet with an interesting 

 specimen of the common lizard bearing a bifurcate tail. I am not aware that such is 

 a usual termination of the caudate appendage in this class of animals, and it may be 

 worth recording. This specimen was captured when basking on a warm bank, and 



