119 
THE MEDITERRANEAN naturalist 
Gyps melitensis (1) whose size exceeds by one 
fifth that of the well-known Vultur monachus , 
and which is therefore the largest accipiter known 
except Harpagornis. 
It is watching with greedy eyes the group of 
cranes, Grus melitensis, who are hastening towards 
the borders of the lake in search of their morn- 
ing meal. 
The air teems with life 
“The insect youth are on the wing, 
Eager to taste the honied Spring, 
And float amid the liquid noon; 
Some lightly o’er the current skim, 
Some show their gaily, gilded trim, 
Quick glaring to the sun.” 
And there, daintily skipping in fearsome haste 
from bough to bough, is a sleek, soft-eyed little 
creature, which, in appearance strongly resembles 
the dormouse that now infests our cornfields, 
but which, in size and habits, is more nearly 
alHed to the squirrel species. 
It is a squirrel-iike mouse Myoxus melitensis , 
that has been enjoying a hasty repast amid the 
profusion of wild fruits with which the surroun - 
ding woods abound. 
And as we proceed onward, we find that the 
jungle thickens, and trees of a larger and stronger 
growth, among which the oak and the acacias 
are specially predominant, take the place of the 
more fragile and delicate vegetation that crowns 
the summits of the hills. 
Have a care, for these wilds are tenanted by 
creatures that recognise but one law, that of might; 
and woe betide those that are unable to hold 
their own against them. 
See yonder group of snorting, dusky levia- 
thans, that are now rounding the base of the neigh- 
bouring hill. The huge beasts Elephas Mna- 
drae , belong to a species of elephants at least 
equal, if not greater, in point of size, than those 
that are now found in the northern provinces of 
India. We will allows them to pass; and then 
we will wander down to their feeding ground. 
Passing through a glade, that is carpeted with 
a waving pile of the most delicate green, and 
which is redolent with the perfume of the blossoms 
(1 ). LydekJcer. R . — “ On the remains of some 
Large Extinct Birds from the. Cavern Deposits of 
Malta. Froc. Zool. Boc. 1890. p. 1^08. 
of the buckthorn, and the dogwood, we 
emerge into the open, and find ourselves in 
the vicinity of the place lately occupied by the 
herd. 
The delicate fronds of the ferns lay bruised ana 
broken around us; and, intermixed with the twigs 
and foliage of the poplar Populus balsamoides and 
P. rnutabilis, and the beautiful Podogonoce , lay 
the tender, green filaments of the club mosses, that 
had been either crushed by the broken branches, 
or had been trampled out of all semblance to their 
former-selves by the formidable animals that had 
just passed over them. 
And now emerging from the farther extre- 
mity of the glade we see another group. In 
form and colour the animals differ k but little 
from the leviathans that have just passed; but 
in size they are by comparison pigmies indeed. 
The smallest of them, Elephas falconeri barely 
exceeds in height an average Newfoundland dog; 
while the others belonging to the species Elephas 
Melitensis attain a size that is not greater than an 
average sized donkey. See ! they are now busily 
engaged in breaking off, with their diminutive 
trunks, the succulent shoots of the trees that their 
larger and more powerful brethren had borne down 
in the course of their progress down the hill 
We will leave them to enjoy their repast, 
and we will wend our way down the slopes 
towards the lake, whose waters lap the eastern 
bases of the Binjemmas, and there watch the 
sportive antics of the shoals of animals that lie 
basking on its surface, and gambolling on its 
sedgy banks. 
Near the mouths of the numerous affluents, 
that discharge their waters into the basin, are 
numbers of hippopotami, some swimming hither 
and thither, others lying motionless on the calm, 
still surface of the lake. 
With his tough hide, and huge jaws, the 
Maltese riv er-horse, Hippopotami ' pentlandi, would 
methinks prove himself to be a formidable toe 
to any that would have the hardihood to 
oppose him. 
One of them has now landed, and is dragging bis 
ponderous bulk up the steep banks. May-hap, he 
is after some dainty morsel wherewith to satisfy 
the cravings of the enormous appetite, that such a 
body must possess. His unceremonious advent 
