422 
Mr. F. C. Selous on 
T found two nests of the Yellow-legged Herring-Gull (Larus 
cachinnans) , one with three and the other with two eggs; 
these being indistinguishable from those of the common 
Herring-Gull of our British coasts. I believe that the 
Mediterranean Black-headed Gull must breed on this coast 
of Asia Minor, but I could get no information on this 
point. On some mudbanks in the salt-lagoon I saw a flock 
of about fifty small wading birds, which I am almost sure 
were Dunlins ( Tringa alpina), also a number of Curlews, 
which may have been Slender-billed Curlews ( Numenius 
tenuirostris). I got back to Bournabat at 4 o*clock on the 
afternoon of the 17th, and, taking a stroll round the fields 
skirting the village, found three nests of the Grey-backed 
Warbler (Aedon familiaris) and several of the Black-headed 
Bunting ( Emberiza melanocephala) . These two species, both 
very common, were now just commencing to lay. Both 
species choose similar situations for their nests, in rather 
open bushes, usually not many feet from the ground; but 
while the Grey-backed Warblers* nests are very large, loose 
structures, lined with an abundance of wool and camel’s hair, 
and with a very shallow open cup, those of the Black-headed 
Bunting, though also large and somewhat loosely built, are 
deeper and more neatly finished inside, hnd as a rule are not 
lined with hair. 
May 18th was my last day in Bournabat, and I spent it 
with Demetrius nest-hunting in the neighbourhood of the 
village. We found several Masked Shrikes* nests ( Lanius 
nubicus ), which were all built on olive-trees and from eight 
to ten feet above the ground. These nests were always placed 
on a thick branch, in the same situation that a Missel- 
Thrush*s nest might occupy. They were much smaller and 
neater—indeed, little more than half the size of the nests 
of either the Lesser Grey Shrike (. Lanius minor) or the 
Woodchat-Shrike (. Lanius pomeranus ), of which latter bird 
we also found a number of nests, some of them in bushes, 
but most of them in olive-trees. 
On May 19th I said goodbye to my kind friends in 
Bournabat, and, goirjg on board the steamer at Smyrna, 
started for Hungary the same afternoon. 
