A'ol. xxix.] 106 



and the locality liad apparently been used by Griffons for a 

 long time. The birds were very bold. 



A large nest of sticks about half a mile away from these 

 ledges was almost certainly the work of a Golden Eagle, a 

 species which they had repeatedly seen in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. This nest was lined throughout with freshly- 

 plucked sprays of green ash, just breaking into leaf, but 

 did not contain any eggs. 



The silence of the Griffon, even when extremely excited, 

 was a re"markable trait. Whilst sweeping past within a few 

 feet, and whilst returning to cover her young in the presence 

 of an intruder (a thing no Eagle would ever do), the Griffon 

 made no cry that could be heard, unless a sound like the 

 subdued bray of a donkey, heard once or twice, was uttered 

 by this bird. There could have been no donkey or mule 

 among such cliffs. In no instance had they found more 

 than a single egg or chick in a nest. 



Mr. C. E. Pearson and Mr. H. M. Wallts exhibited the 

 eggs of the Mediterranean Purple Gallinule {Porphyrio 

 cceruleus) obtained by them at Lac Eetzara, Bone, on the 

 23rd and 24th of April. About twenty nests were found, 

 of which some four or five contained from one to four 

 eggs. These eggs varied in size from considerably smaller 

 to perceptibly larger than an average egg of the Common 

 Coot. The nests were almost invariably built higher in 

 the herbage than a Coot^s, and were with one exception 

 more bulky. All were canopied by an arrangement of 

 rushes or reeds. In most cases the canopy was of a rather 

 flimsy description, but in others, where the nest was sup- 

 ported by stout reeds 14 or 15 feet in height and as thick 

 as one's finger, these had been half-bitten through about 

 18 inches above the nest, and made to fall across it. Such 

 a screen would no doubt make it ditiicult for a Marsh- 

 Harrier or Serpent-Eagle to take the sitting bird ; yet 

 the species, though fairly abundant, was immensely out- 

 numbered by the Common Coot. The latter bird made 



