Sydney Porter—Some Corsican Birds 89


so much. Their favourite perch seems to be the telegraph wires by

the roadside.


Hooded Crows are very common, but they seem to be a different

race from those we see in England and France ; they are much lighter

in colour, and at a distance seem black and white. Indeed, my friend

often mistook them for Magpies. Round the sea coast they swarmed,

finding their food no doubt from the various mollusca thrown up by

the tide. With these Crows were often one or two Carrion Crows,

which seemed never to wander very far from the seashore. I have

just noticed in The Practical Handbook of British Birds that the Common

Hooded Crow is “ replaced by another form in Corsica ”.


Of wading birds and gulls we saw very little ; the Black-headed

and Herring Gulls were the only ones seen. I may mention here,

if it is not out of place, that while staying in the Maritime Alps in

France I saw several examples of that charming bird, the Wall Creeper,

flying about over the snow, the rich crimson of the wings making a

pleasing contrast with the white surface of the rocks. Surely these

little birds cannot be so very delicate to endure such cold.


This brings to a close the list of birds that I was able to identify.

There were many more seen, but, as I have stated before, having no

glasses and an uninterested friend, I was unable to devote much time

to watching the birds, but some time in the future I hope to visit

Corsica again and to spend a longer and a more profitable time amongst

the birds, not with the object of collecting sub-species, but to get

a glance at their lives and not to take those lives on the mere excuse

of benefiting science. Do we not get infinitely more pleasure studying

these feathered jewels in their own sittings than comparing musty

skins ? Have we gained much knowledge in comparison to the

thousands and thousands of lives that have been taken to supply our

collectors’ cabinets and museums ? I venture to say no. But I have

wandered off my subject. Corsica is surely one of the most fascinating

places for the bird-lover, for there so many different kinds of birds are

found, and yet it is so near England. It was winter time when I was

there, and at a time no doubt when the bird population was at its

lowest. What must it be like in the summer, when all the gorgeous

migrants come from the South % What a vast field of study for the



