ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTESfromSOUTH-WESTERN
EUROPE.
By Surgeon K. Hurlstone Jones, M.B., R.N., F.L.S.
It is particularly to be understood that in writing the present article no pretence is made at compiling a list of the birds for the localities mentioned. To do so would require much longer periods of observation, and fuller acquaintance with their avian fauna than have fallen to the lot of the present writer. It being therefore understood that these are merely rough notes, it only remains to make a few remarks concerning those portions of South-western Europe the birds of which are the object of this communication.
The Channel Squadron, in which the writer had the honour to serve, makes, as a rule, two visits annually to the South-west of Europe, one in the autumn, and the other in the spring. It has been in spare time during these cruises in 1898–9 that these notes have been jotted down.
The places in that portion of Europe under consideration which have supplied these notes are Arosa Bay and the neighbourhood, in the extreme north-west of Spain; Gibraltar, and portions of the adjoining Spanish mainland; Lisbon; and Sardinia. In the autumn of 1898, when, however, only Gibraltar and Arosa Bay were visited, not very many notes of the birds were taken, as at that time more attention was devoted to the Mollusca. In the spring and autumn of 1899, however, much fuller observations were made.
The country around Arosa Bay is widely and roughly cultivated, well-wooded, and thickly populated. It is hilly, but possesses no great elevations. The woods, which, though very numerous, are for the most part individually small, consist mainly of pines, firs, and small oaks. The country is full of elevations formed of old red sandstone, and often of most curious shapes, resembling strongly the tors of Dartmoor.
