THE ORNITHOLOGIST. 



Vol. I. MARCH, 1896. No. 1. 



BLED NOTES BY THE WAY. 

 By 0. V. Aplin, F.L.S. 



We sailed from London the day the cold spell set in — 

 December 28th, 1894 — but with the exception of some Her- 

 ring Gulls and Kittiwakes at Plymouth, I saw nothing in 

 the bird way until we rounded Cape Finisterre early on the 

 morning of New Year's Day. There might or might not have 

 been Petrels in the Bay (we had a dozen following us across 

 in September, 1892), but what with squally winds and flying 

 snow-storms, the weather was so extremely uncomfortable 

 that I found my berth the only place I could keep warm in. 

 Perhaps, on this voyage, we stood in too near the shore to see 

 many ocean birds, for in the same latitude in which, in 

 September, 1892, we had about a hundred Stormy Petrels 

 following us, and a good many Shearwaters (P. kuhli) were 

 to be seen, on the present occasion I only noticed on this 

 day one apparently water-logged Petrel. But possibly the 

 Shearwaters had gone further south. The only other birds 

 identified were some Kittiwakes {chiefly adults) and an old 

 Gannet. 



The next day we were running along the S.W. coast of 

 Spain. Some Kittiwakes followed us, and I saw a few 

 Gannets off Cape Trafalgar. As we entered the broad part 

 of the Straits, and, blue and hazy, on our starboard, the peaked 

 hills of the African coast came into view, we fell in with a 



