Rough Notes from the Mediterranean . 305


ROUGH NOTES FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN.


By T. H. Newman, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


I fear some apology is needed for the appearance of these

meagre notes. In the first place, at the time they were taken down

I did not know of the existence of our Societ}^ and I never

thought that they would appear in print, and in a hurried rush

from place to place (I was only away for some six or seven

weeks altogether) with sight-seeing as the primary object, one

has little time to watch the birds, and it is only the com¬

monest and most conspicuous which come under one’s notice ;

it is also very difficult to determine the species from the hurried

glance which is all one is often able to get. Also this is now

quite ancient history, as it is over eight years since this little trip

was undertaken in the early spring of 1S97. I will endeavour to

mention all the chief birds that came under my notice in the

order they were met with.


We left England Feb. iSth and were to join our boat at

Marseilles. The journey across France was mostly accomplished

in the night. As one would expect, birds were few and far

between. I only noticed a small flock of Rooks ( Corvus frugilegus),

a solitary Magpie ( Pica pica), and a flock of small birds. I11 S.

France the sombre grey of the olive trees was relieved by the

beautiful pink of the almond and the white of the plum, pear, or

cherr} r trees which were in full bloom.


Feb. 20th, 7.30 a.m., Corsica was in sight, the coast is very

rocky and the higher mountains were capped with snow. When

we landed at Ajaccio one was struck with the thorough contrast

from England which we had left only two days before still in the

depth of winter, here we were suddenly transported to a semi-

tropical region. A stately avenue of date palms leads up to the

town; acacia, orange, and citron trees border the principal

streets, in the country round aloes and prickly pears grow in

great abundance. The spring flowers were much in evidence,

among which I noticed a very pretty small bluish crocus and a

kind of wild arum, the steep rocky ground near the sea was

covered with many low plants with a very grey looking foliage.

I did not see many wild birds, but Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis),



