NOTES AND QUERIES. 429 
flying and occasionally alighting in a garden in the west of Mentone. 
During this summer of 1912 I have not seen it at all in Mentone, but 
I saw it lately on Mount Bellenda, on the Italian side of the frontier, 
in company with P. machaon. Both were there numerous. Star- 
lings on a southward flight were seen in large numbers in the tops 
of the planes which line the Avenue Félix Faure, on Noy. 26th and 
Dec. 18th, 1911. They remained for a few days and disappeared. 
In the beginning of January, 1912, I chanced to see a large stuffed 
Owl (Bubo ignavus) in a house at Sainte-Agnés ; it had been killed in 
the vicinity. This and a dead owl of smaller size nailed to the wall 
of an outbuilding in Moulinet are the only Owls I have seen in the 
district. Other birds seen only in the carcase were Song-Thrushes 
and Redwings, about the middle and end of February. The wild 
purple anemone was in flower on Dec. 25th, 1911, but the red did not 
appear until the end of February in 1912, and at about the same 
time Nightingales came into song, and Chaffinches were singing 
freely. When the Nightingale alights upon the ground it jerks its 
tail up and down repeatedly. One of the commonest of spring birds 
in the gardens of Mentone is the Willow-Warbler, which utters a 
frequent and not unmelodious strain. Carrion-Crows I saw near 
Laghet in May. There were five in company. I saw these birds 
also every day during three weeks at Peira Cava (about 4800 ft.) in 
July and August. One large solitary Blackbird—it looked larger than 
the Crows—was seen there also; I could not be certain that it was a 
Raven. I first saw fireflies at Mentone on June 3rd, and every night 
thereafter during June and the first week of July at Mentone, Sospel, 
and Moulinet (about 3000 ft.), but at Peira Cava I saw none. Black- 
birds were plentiful near Sospel and at Moulinet in June, and I hada 
momentary glimpse of a Blackcap near Sospel, and of a Kingfisher 
near Moulinet. At the latter place a Cuckoo began calling very 
early—at 3 a.m. one morning—and there also I saw a Rock-Doyve, 
which flew out of a clump of Spanish chestnuts to the east of Bévéra, 
and alighted on a tree in the open part of the valley. A few days 
later—on June 29th—as I was sitting on a rock by the side of the 
Bévéra immediately below the Pont de Mouravi, a Water-Ouzel 
perched on an adjacent rock, and eyed me curiously for some 
seconds. Near the same spot, where grow magnificent fronds of 
Scolopendriwm vulgare, 1 saw Blackbirds, Wrens, anda Robin. Siskins 
were common amongst the pines at Peira Cava, and I saw there also 
the Greater Tit. There also was a small bird with a bluish-grey 
back, which ascended the boles of the pines swiftly in a perpendicular 
