2714 The Zoologist — August, 1871. 



{Aquila Bonelli). One of these magnificent birds perched on a 

 rock among the brakes, &c,, at no very great distance. It exhibited 

 a singular patch of white upon the back. They prey upon the 

 rabbits, which abound. That handsome species, the blue thrush 

 {Petrocincla cyanea) is common on the upper parts of the rock: 

 its flight and manner reminded me of our ring ouzel (Tardus tor- 

 quatus) : at a distance it looks rather black than blue, unless the 

 sun happens to shine upon it : it is not easy to get near this shy 

 and solitary bird. The gay but common tilhys redstart [Ruticilla 

 tithys) is much tamer : I saw more males than females : as young 

 males as well have the gray plumage for at least one year, I could 

 not account for it. One of the most attractive birds on the rock is 

 the black whealear [Dromolea leucura) ; it abounds. Here are the 

 winter quarters of some of our common English summer migrants. 

 Countless willow wrens [Sylvia trochilus) enjoy Gibraltar's sunny 

 climate, wintering among the Cactus plants ; and I often heard the 

 Sardinian warbler's {Sylvia melaiiocephala) bantering note, and 

 detected the black head of this lively bird clinging to a Cactus 

 stem ; in fact, these hardy warblers enliven every hedge-row : in 

 several I noticed a brown spot in the region of the chin, which I at 

 first thought was a stain from contact with the red flowers of the 

 Cactus, but which Major Irby informs me is really caused by the 

 berries of the pepper tree. With the Sardinian warblers were many 

 blackcaps, to which they bear a general resemblance, as also to the 

 Orphean warbler [Sylvia or/)hea), and I observed the same peculiar 

 spot on some of these. On the rough stony ground 1 saw the white 

 wagtail [Motacilla alba) and the crested lark [Galerida cristata), 

 and, at the rock's summit, that rare bird, the alpine accentor 

 [Accentor alpinus), and several crag martins [Cotyle rupesiris), the 

 most stay-at-home of all the Hirundines. The accentor, when first 

 noticed, was on the outside of the signal station, clinging, within a 

 few feet of me, to the masonry : it was perfectly tame. 1 observed 

 Kentish plovers [Charadrius cantianus), in troops often or twenty, 

 scampering nimbly along the sandy isthmus which separates the 

 rock from the mainland. A dog disturbed a small covey of Barbary 

 partridges [Perdix petrosa) near the old Moorish tower, and 1 saw 

 with surprise that on the wing this species far more nearly resembles 

 the gray {P. cinerea) than the redleg [P. ritfa). 



On the 23rd 1 left for Oran in a French packet, which was to 

 touch at Malaga. I noticed a dark Lestris-looking bird among some 



