82 Mr. D. A. Bannerman on an Ornithological 



in attempting to bring the boat alongside, and when at last 

 we were able to jump ashore we were almost up to our 

 waists in water. This is the smallest of all the islets and 

 covers an area o£ some 40,000 square yards. Composed 

 entirely o£ jagged lumps of black lava heaped one upon 

 the other, the highest point is only 30 feet above sea-level. 

 I climbed all round the rock, and although I had been 

 informed that there were no birds on it, I found numbers 

 of large Shearwaters [P. k. flavirostris) nesting in the holes 

 and crevices. 



This was the only member of the Petrel family 

 encountered, but several other birds were seen ; most 

 interesting of these was a Falcon which appeared to be very 

 blue in colour. It was very probably the same bird that I • 

 had seen in Montana Clara, but the sun being directly 

 behind the bird I did not get a clear view of it. A pair of 

 Ospreys was sitting on the rock as we approached, and a 

 Kestrel hung poised in the air above a small gathering of 

 Yellow-legged Herring-Gulls. Four species of plants were 

 found growing amongst lava blocks, but unfortunately all 

 my samples were destroyed before they could be identified. 

 An ice-plant [Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum), which grew 

 in patches, appeared to be fairly common. Specimens of 

 P. h. fiavirostris and their eggs were collected here. I had 

 hoped to find Bulweria bulvjeri breeding, but in this I was 

 disappointed. 



The East Rock. 



After visiting the West E-ock I was forced to abandon 

 all idea of landing on the East E-ock, which lies in a much 

 more exposed position than even the first named. Situated 

 7 J miles from Lanzarote, '* El Roque," as the fishermen call it, 

 has an area of roughly 125,000 square yards. The following 

 is a short description of the island by Dr. Karl Sapper {vide 

 Petermann's Mitteilungen, vol. 52, 1906, pp. ] 73-184) : — 



^' The Roque del Este shows two summits, one in the 

 S.W. of 65 m. and a second in the N.E. of 81 m. South- 

 east of the latter an eruptive mass starts out of the sea 



