176 Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain 



subject, may I ask if any of my readers have ever remarked the 

 extraordinary cries of birds during the night? It has happened 

 to me on several occasions after dark, in different parts of Europe, 

 to hear very large flights of birds, with whose notes (in the ma- 

 jority of instances) I was totally unacquainted, pass over at no 

 great distance. Once, in one of the quadrangles of Christ-Church, 

 Oxford, I listened for at least ten minutes to the continuous cry 

 of a flock of birds — which cry I can only liken, and that very 

 slightly, to the screech of the Night-Heron [Nycticorax griseus). 

 Again, on the Esplanade at Corfu, in the summer of 1858, my 

 companion and I were suddenly startled from the somewhat 

 drowsy contemplation of our cigarettes by an uproar as if all the 

 feathered inhabitants of the great Acherusian marsh had met in 

 conflict over our heads: this took place in July, about 1 a.m., 

 when we were lengthening our days according to Tom Moore^s 

 well-known precept. It would be quite impossible to convey any- 

 thing approaching to a just idea of the Babel of sounds, many of 

 which neither of us had ever before heard ; and 1 have no con- 

 ception what birds can have produced the greater part of them ; 

 but I recognized the wail of the Curlew, the cry of more than 

 one species of Tern, and the laugh of some Larus. In Southern 

 Spain the Lesser Kestrel occasionally remains through the winter, 

 but the greater number leave the country about October, and 

 reappear in April. The Spaniards call the Common Kestrel 

 Cernicalo, and the Lesser Primilla or Buai'o : this latter name 

 is sometimes applied to the Hobby also. The Merlin {Falco 

 cesalon), in Spanish Esmerejon, is common in winter, and well 

 known throughout Spain 



I have once or twice seen the Gos-Hawk {Astur palumbai'ius) 

 in Andalucia, and also in Catalonia. Brehm mentions that, 

 although he never saw this species alive, he met with it in all 

 the museums which he visited in Spain. The Spaniards call the 

 Gos-Hawk Azor. The Sparrow-Hawk [Accipiter nisus) is common 

 all over Spain, where it is known as Gavildn. The Common 

 Buzzard [Buteo vulgaris) is often found in Andalucia, and, ac- 

 cording to Brehm, in most other parts of Spain. I have reason 

 to think that Buteo desertorum is to be found in Western Spain 

 and Portugal, though I cannot at present state this with cer- 



