Birds. 5597 



Birds of the Crimea,. By Thomas Blakiston, Esq., Lieut. R.A. 

 (Continued from p. 5522). 



Scansores. 



On one of those clear, frozen mornings, at the close of the year, 

 when the whole country was covered with snow, having found my way 

 across the plain of Balaclava before sunrise, and having breakfasted at 

 Kamara with a friend, the two of us started on our horses, with the in- 

 tention of going to Phoros Pass, where the WoronzofT Road descends 

 to the far-famed South Coast. We found the road, on account of ice, 

 such bad going, besides my mare having thrown a shoe, that on 

 reaching the dividing ridge between the valleys of Varnutka and 

 Baidar, we determined on striking off through the woods for the dis- 

 trict of Laspi. I think I shall not easily forget the view, as we then 

 saw it : it was the Valley of Baidar, of which so much as been said, 

 with a perfectly horizontal mist hanging over the distant part, cutting 

 the mountains in the background, and with Petrouski's villa appearing 

 above the trees in the foreground. By steering about south we came 

 to the cliffs near the sea, and having fed our horses and rested for 

 awhile we turned our heads for camp. During our ride over the 

 wooded hills we observed a great number of missel thrushes, and, as 

 we were going up a steep path, we caught sight of a woodpecker, on 

 which I dismounted, and crept within ten yards of him, when I could 

 distinctly see the bright red vent and under tail-coverts, and the back 

 black, with white on either side of it : this, I had no doubt, was the 

 great spotted woodpecker (Picus major), and afterwards Dr. Carte in- 

 formed me that he obtained a specimen in March, and I saw several 

 skins which were collected in the Crimea. We passed a little inland 

 of Cape Aia, and, as we descended into the Valley of Varnutka, a thick 

 fog came on, and so we had to steer across the valley by instinct, 

 which we luckily did in a good line, and hit off the road over the hills 

 back to Kamara. The next morning, soon after daylight, I had cleared 

 the Sardinian camp, and was making my way across the plain for 

 Kadakoi. 



The wryneck {Yunx torquilla), another bird which may be here re- 

 ferred to, I first procured in the third week of April, and again in the 

 beginning of the next month, up to which time I never observed two 

 in company. Should curiosity or accident cause any one to pull this 

 bird's tongue out of its mouth to the full extent, it may astonish him, 



