574 
Mr. J. H. Stenlionse : 
[Ibis, 
days at a time were paid to the neighbourhood of the Laguna 
de la Janda, and the Re tin Hills. Notes on migration were 
regularly made, and it was hoped that constant watching at 
the Europa Lighthouse, Gibraltar, would give good results ; 
but the nature of the light (double occulting with red and dark 
sectors), and still more the meteorological conditions which 
prevail in the usually clear atmosphere of the Straits, have 
rendered the return a meagre one. “ Bird Nights ” were few 
and far between, and it was only occasionally that a bird 
struck the lantern. It is possible that were the observations 
continued over a series of years, valuable information might 
be obtained, and more so if collaboration could be carried out 
with the lighthouses at Capes Spartel and St. Vincent, where, 
it is said, that at times many birds are observed. For some at 
present inexplicable reason the Europa light was only attrac¬ 
tive to birds when the wind was westerly. When migrants 
were seen on the Rock after an easterly wind, even though 
the meteorological conditions seemed favourable, the invari¬ 
able report from the lighthouse was, that none had been seen 
in the rays. 
Attention was chiefly given to the Passeres, and owing to 
want of time no skins of the larger birds were preserved. 
With regard to these no information was obtained which is 
not already recorded in Irby’s 1 Ornithology of the Straits 
of Gibraltar/ The more one tries to do ornithological work 
in southern Spain, the more one must admire the results 
obtained by that excellent ornithologist, whose earlier observ¬ 
ations, at all events, were made from the same base as that 
from which I worked and under much more difficult 
conditions as to transport. 
It has been assumed that the 12 to 15 miles stretch of 
water which lies between southern Spain and Morocco, is a 
well-defined boundary line between the ranges of many sub¬ 
specific forms of birds. The result of these observations is 
to dissipate that theory to a considerable extent : the Haw¬ 
finch, Hartford Warbler, Eantail Warbler, Wren, Blackbird, 
Robin, and probably the Great Tit, Mistie-Thrush, and Martin, 
formerly considered subspecifically different, must now be 
