742 Mr. C. B. Ticelinrst on the Birds noticed 
distance. We were then over one hundred miles from land. 
The next day, passing through the Bay, we saw only one or 
two Gannets and some immature Gulls. On the 17th we were 
running down the Portuguese coast with land never more 
than fifty miles distant, and Gulls were more numerous; 
several adult and immature Lesser Black-backs and some 
adult Yellow r -legged Herring-Gulls followed the boat all day. 
The latter birds were easily identifiable, as when they sailed 
close over head their yellow legs were conspicuous: an 
immature Gannet was the only other species seen. 
The next day we passed close to Cape St. Vincent, and here 
a Hoopoe was brought to me which had settled on the ship 
exhausted. It had nothing in its gizzard and the ovary was 
slightly enlarged, so the bird must have flown a considerable 
distance to be so exhausted as not to be able to reach land, 
only two miles distant; moreover, the weather was calm. 
Two other birds, which I did not see, settled on the ship 
during the day, and soon flew to the north, so that even if 
they had come from the nearest point on the African coast 
a hundred and fifty to two hundred miles distant, and their 
point of exit may have been much further off, they were 
performing a long sea journey instead of crossing the Straits. 
But it may be that their objectives were the river valleys 
of the Guadiana and Guadalquivir, up which, perhaps, there 
are big migration-routes. These records may seem little to 
base any theory on, but it must be remembered that at sea, 
as on land, for every bird one observes migrating there are 
probably hundreds of others on the same course which are 
not met with. The only other birds seen this day were an 
immature Great Black-backed Gull and an adult Pvffinus 
kuhli. 
On the 19th of April we were at Gibraltar, and having all the 
morning ashore, I started early and walked to the Carboneros 
hills at the head of the bay near Campamento. The cha¬ 
racter of the ground here has altered much since Col. Irby’s 
time, and, as all the cork-woods have gone, many birds have 
gone with them. Round the foot of the hills is a sandy 
waste covered with coarse grass, and dotted about here and 
