437 
Mr. C. A. Wright’s Visit to Filfla. 
onion or garlic, the stem rising to a height of more than five 
feet., The familiar Silene vespertina and pretty little Anagallis 
arvensis. (both the red and the blue varieties) were also seen. 
They were very much stunted, doubtless from the exposed nature 
of the situation. I discovered several very healthy and flourish¬ 
ing plants of the Ecbalium elaterium , or squirting cucumber. 
Many of the fruit were ripe, as evinced by their going off, like 
a hair-triggered pistol, at the slightest touch, discharging their 
seeds with great force. This is an interesting instance of the 
innumerable and various ways adopted by nature for scattering 
the seeds of plants. Another interesting plant noticed is the 
Caper, but of which species of the two found in Malta I did not 
ascertain. I have also to mention a large kind of umbelliferous 
plant pretty common, and several other small plants unknown 
to me. I took care, however, to bring home specimens. The 
above, I think, comprise nearly all the scanty flora of this rocky 
islet. The Black Lizard of Filfla is perfectly black on the upper 
parts, spotted with green and blue. It is considered to be 
merely a variety of Podarces muralis, of Italy and the Maltese 
Islands ; but no one seeing the two could ever mistake one for 
the other. Its black colour and larger size distinguish it at a 
glance. It is what naturalists, in the absence of a better term, 
may call a “ permanent local variety ; 33 but in what respects a 
permanent variety differs from a species I have never been able 
to find out. The Filfla Lizard affords a striking and curious 
illustration of the variation of species produced by local causes. 
In an ornithological way, considering the small size of the 
rock, and that the migratory season is nearly over, we were not 
disappointed. Besides the Pigeons (an admixture of escaped Do¬ 
mestic Pigeons and the Blue-rock) we saw about a dozen Turtle- 
Doves ( Columba turtur) that had doubtless alighted there (the 
nearest point) on their northern migration from Africa. Although 
fired at and frequently disturbed, they continued on the island 
for some hours after our arrival, and probably were there when we 
left. We also observed from a dozen to eighteen Quails, a Purple 
Heron (and found another dead), a Squacco Heron, and several 
small birds, namely, two Wheatears ( Saxicola cenanthe), three 
or four Yellow Wagtails, a Tawny Pipit, a Short-toed Lark, two 
