482 Letters, Extracts, Announcements, &c. 
growing plant. Of this he brought down a specimen, which 
I have lately discovered to be Frankenia revoluta (Forsk.), 
a subspecies of F. devis (Linn.). I did not get a shot at any 
bird; in fact, besides the Gulls, the only birds seen by me 
were two or three Common Sandpipers, one Whimbrel, one 
Turnstone, a Falcon (either F. subbuteo or F. eleanore), and 
two Stilts (Himantopus melanopterus), evidently on their 
travels, and unwilling to leave their resting-place at this late 
hour of the day for an unknown shore. On getting back 
to the landing-place I was joined by the explorers. My son 
told me that they had seen nothing but Gulls, a Hawk, and 
one small bird; he had only bagged two Gulls, but killed two 
more, which had fallen at a distance into the sea. The two 
specimens of Larus which he had secured proved to be very 
fine adult Audouin’s Gulls, both males, and he assured me 
that the two others which he had lost were exactly like them, 
with red bills. On our showing these birds to the lighthouse 
men, they solemnly declared that there was no other Gull on 
the island, though the Lesser Black-backed, in adult plumage, 
had been flying over and about them all the evening: they 
told me that they had some eggs, and brought down some 
two dozen of them to us; these were all decidedly eggs of 
either Larus fuscus or L. leucopheus, perhaps of both, but 
most certainly not of L. audouint. Our Spanish companion 
had also taken three eggs from a nest on the flat. summit of 
the island, which were of the same character and size as 
those above mentioned. I had not expected to find eggs of 
Larus audouini, as the eleven taken on the island of Toro 
late in May 1874 were for the most part quite fresh, though 
two of them contained young birds within a few days of 
hatching. The small bird above mentioned proved to be a 
Whinchat (Pratincola rubetra). I was naturally much pleased 
at the addition of Z. audouini to the avifauna of Old Spain, 
and went off to our vessel in hopes of securing a good series 
of specimens thereof on the morrow. But it was not to be; a 
very strong westerly wind set in soon after nightfall, and 
having strained and rolled at our chain all night in a heavy 
sea, which would make landing on the island highly dauge- 
