during a Voyage to Alexandria, 7 43 
there are small houses and gardens, but very few trees. 
Here I saw a few Redstarts, Common Wheatears, Wood- 
Chats, Garden-Warblers, and Crested Larks, while Swallows, 
House-Martins, and Swifts were numerous. The Sparrow 
of Gibraltar appeared to be P. domesticus, Further up 
the hillside the ground became broken with big boulders 
and plentifully covered by gorse and heather, which in 
places was high. Bird-life was not abundant, but the two 
commonest species were the Sardinian Warbler (Sylvia 
melanocephala') and the Spectacled Warbler (Sylvia conspi- 
cillata). Both these birds have pretty warbling songs, and 
the former in its habits much resembles the Common White- 
throat, as it mounts up into the air and hovers, singing the 
while; it also has a loud scolding note. Both these 
species were evidently breeding, and were feeding their 
young on beetles and other insects. Equally common was 
the Stonechat (Pratincola rubicola), which was also nesting. 
Compared with our British Stonechat at the same time of 
year, this bird has much of the grey edgings to the 
feathers of its back worn off, so that the upper parts 
look almost black while the under parts are noticeably 
paler. I saw one or two pairs of Black-throated Chats 
(Saxicola occidentalis of Salvadori), but judging from their 
organs they were not breeding ; a male had all the body- 
feathers quite fresh, and had evidently not long moulted, 
while the tail also looked quite new. Other birds which 
were numerous were Kestrels, Spanish Ravens, and Gold¬ 
finches. There were also some Nightingales which evidently 
had just arrived ; they were very shy, skulking, and silent. 
I witnessed an interesting arrival of Bee-eaters ; they 
came in high up from over the Straits and went on inland to 
the north, uttering their well-known call-note. Another 
bird which I saw arrive from Africa was the Eared Chat 
{Saxicola catering of Whitaker). I saw it first as a speck 
high up over Gibraltar : it gradually came nearer, and finally 
pitched close to me on a rock ; the testes were fairly enlarged 
and there were the remains of beetles in its gizzard. As 
regards Vultures, I saw several Neophron percnopterus, both 
3 d 2 
