745 
during a Voyage to Alexandria. 
cachinnans) were the only birds seen. On the 23rd we were off 
the Bay of Tunis, and during the day I saw an immature Gannet 
and some young Larus marinus and adult L. cachinnans. Some 
small Shearwaters, probably Puffinus yellcouanus, were observed 
about ten miles N.W. of Pantellaria, and in the evening a few 
Swallows came on board. The following morning we were in 
Malta, and on visiting the market I found a few birds exposed 
for sale. Turtle-Doves, Quails, and Golden Orioles (mostly 
fully adult birds, but some immature) were the most numerous, 
but there were also a Scops Owl, Cuckoo, Hoopoe, Bock- 
Tlirush ( Monticola saxatilis), Bed-footed Falcon, a Boiler, 
a Short-eared Owl, and a Beeve—a truly mixed bag—which 
could be bought for threepence a head. Having a few hours 
to spare, I took a cab to the Marsa and walked up a very rocky 
valley, on the side of which were innumerable small patches 
of cultivation surrounded by low stone walls, known as the 
Wied Zubbug. Even here, the only place near Yaletta where 
one can get away from houses and people, I found bird-life 
not abundant; but I noted the following birds :—Swallows, 
House-Martins, Spotted and Pied Flycatchers, Golden Orioles, 
a Wood-Chat, Turtle-Doves, Spectacled Warblers, Bock- 
Thrushes, Bed-footed Falcons, and the Maltese Sparrow. 
All the birds were very wild, no doubt owing to native per¬ 
secution. The Bock-Thrushes were in full song; the song 
seemed to me rather sweet and soft, more melodious and less 
monotonous than that of the Song-Thrush and having more 
“ body ” than that of a Common Wheatear. The Spectacled 
Warbler was also uttering a rather pleasing little song, in 
parts rather like a Common Wren’s, but more warbling and 
varied and not so shrill. I found the nest of this bird where 
the straggling branches of a crab-tree mingled with those of 
a hawthorn. It seemed rather big for the size of the bird, and 
was composed of the dried leaves of some kind of thistle 
lined with dried grasses, while dotted about in the lining were 
the tops of a flowering grass which looked like yellowish 
wool and reminded me of the little bits of wool frequently 
seen dotted about in the nest of the Common Whitethroat; 
