166 Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain. 



XVII. — Notes on the Ornithology of Spain. 

 By Lord Lilford, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 

 (Plate V.) 

 The birds of Spain appear to be less known than tbose of any 

 other part of Europe of equal extent. The only authorities on 

 the subject to which I am able to refer are, Captain Widdrington*, 

 Dr. A. E. Brehmf, Mr. Bury J, Don Antonio Machado§, and 

 two or three contributors to the * Journal of Arts and Sciences 

 of Madrid.' In my two short visits to Spain, I have of course 

 not been able to acquire sufficient knowledge of her avifauna to 

 write with any authority on the subject ; but having taken careful 

 notes of all that I did see, I am inclined to think that the result 

 of my observations may prove of interest to some of the readers 

 of the 'Ibis.' 



My first visit to the country was in August 1856, in the Royal 

 YachtSquadron's schooner 'Claymore'; on which occasion, sailing 

 from Falmouth, we first touched at Corunna, and thence, avoiding 

 Portugal on account of the cholera which was raging at Lisbon, 

 we sailed to Cadiz and all the principal Spanish ports on the 

 Mediterranean, including Palma and Port Mahon in the Balearic 

 Islands. As we merely stayed a few days at each place, and the 

 weather was intensely hot, my opportunities for studying birds 

 were not many; but I saw enough to render me very anxious to 

 revisit Spain, and I may add that, to my mind, a more interest- 

 ing country in every way can hardly exist. A second visit in 

 the spring of 1864 only confirmed my previous favourable im- 

 pression of Spain, her people, her climate, her beauties of nature 

 and art, and last, but by no means least in my opinion, her orni- 

 thological capabilities. As may be expected in a country so 

 extensive and of such diversified geological conformation, no obser- 

 vations on natural productions can apply to all parts ; and I may 

 state that my own notes refer almost exclusively to Andalucia 



* Sketches in Spain. By Capt. S. E. Cook. London and Paris : 1834. 

 t Naturhistorische Zeitung, vol. iii. Dresden : 1857. 

 X Zoologist, 1848, p. 1958. 



§ Catalogo de las aves observadas en algunas provincias de Andalucia. 

 Sevilla: 1854. 



