5670 Birds. 



and form the foot of the higher hills, consist of surface beds of lime- 

 stone, covered with large erratic blocks of granite of different shapes 

 and sizes. These massive stones, heaped one above another, leave no 

 place for vegetation of any sort except the Asphodelus ramosus. Our 

 way then lay northwards towards these pathless mountains, and after 

 a wearisome ascent up the empty bed of a torrent, on whose banks 

 the beautiful Nerium oleander and the charming Agno casto grew 

 luxuriantly, we arrived, after a good hour, at the foot of the higher 

 range above mentioned. All along our road, in the bed of the torrent, 

 we had found rose-starlings in great plenty : they came down to drink, 

 first alighting on the ground, and then on the oleander bushes, where 

 they seemed to vanish like magic, as they mixed their gay colouring 

 with the flowers of the oleander. We had hardly began to mount the 

 hill before we noticed another»thing; there was not a stone or block 

 which was not covered with the white excrement of these birds, they 

 resorted there in such multitudes ; but how great was our astonishment 

 when we saw, at a distance of about 200 metres above us, the rocks 

 covered with white, looking as if lime had been spread out for 200 

 yards square. On arriving there we found a real camp and a battle- 

 field in one : the nests were in thousands, some quite open, and 

 uncovered, others so concealed amongst the blocks of stone, that it 

 was necessary to turn them over to find them ; some were more than 

 a foot below the surface, and others could not be reached with the 

 arms. The nests were often so close together as to touch one another; 

 they were made with but little care : the birds content themselves with 

 a slight hollow in the ground, in which are placed some dead stalks 

 of the " Agro casto," and, in a few instances, a lining of grass: I 

 observed many in which the eggs lay on the bare earth. This sort of 

 nesting exposed them to a great many enemies, which were roaming 

 about them on all sides : for that reason I said that we had found a 

 battle-field as well as an encampment, for to give you an idea of the 

 quantity of nestlings destroyed by jackals, martens, wild cats, rats, &c, 

 judge, when I tell you that in a space of about five square yards I 

 counted fourteen pairs of wings and three remains of old ones : besides 

 who can tell the number of eggs destroyed by the snakes ? Indeed, it 

 is wonderful how the rose-starlings can propagate at all, in spite of all 

 these enemies : and if, on the one hand, this is due to its immense 

 numbers, so also, on the other side, something must be allowed to the 

 care with which it broods over and watches its eggs, and the quickness 

 with which the young grow and attain their plumage. 



" Although, from what I have before related concerning the migra- 



