Expedition to the Eastern Canary Islands. 41 



somewhat embarrassing, yet it is distinctly good news that 

 the Spanish authorities have at last i-ealised that birds need 

 protection during tbe breeding-season^ especially on islands 

 such as the Canary group. If the Guardia Civiles^ who are 

 charged with the enforcement of the Act, would only carry 

 their vigilance beyond the radius of the chief towns, they 

 would be carrying out a more useful work than is at present 

 the case. 



I wish to render my best thanks to Mr, W. R, Ogilvie- 

 Grant and Mr. C. E. Fagan, I.S.O., of the British Museum 

 (Natural History), for the aid which they have given me in 

 organising the Expedition. To Mr. E, G. B. Meade- Waldo 

 I am deeply indebted for much useful advice, which proved 

 invaluable throughout the trip. I was lucky in possessing a 

 copy of his original private diary ; I was thus enabled to 

 compare, in the larger islands at any rate, the conditions of 

 bird-life to-day with those existing twenty years ago when 

 he himself did so much work in this group, 



Lastl}^ I wish to say a word in praise of my taxidermist, 

 A. H. Bishop, who carried out his work well and conscien- 

 tiously and placed a most creditable number of skins to his 

 account. 



It must be understood that this paper merely deals 

 with my own personal observations in the eastern Canary 

 Islands. I have not, as in my previous paper C^Ibis/ 1912, 

 p. 557), embodied the results arrived at by other orni- 

 thologists working on this gi'oup. 



I landed at Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) on April the 22nd, 

 and between that date and May the 4th a number of birds 

 and eggs were collected in the neighbourhood of Las Palmas 

 and in the small mountain village of Firga*?. On our return 

 from the eastern group, another week (June 18 to 23) 

 was spent in Gran Canaria while waiting for a boat to take 

 us to England. My notes on the birds of this island I have 

 not included in the general account of the Expedition. 

 They refer chiefly to the nidification of certain species, and 

 will be included in the work on the birds of the entire 

 group upon which I am at present engaged. 



