Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/240

218 and Common Gulls are plentiful. The Herring Gull has bright yellow legs: this, as far as I can remember, is different from our bird. The Lesser Black-backed Gull also seems different. There are no Rooks in these parts, but their place seems taken by Storks, who are very tame, and may be seen following the plough and walking sedately about the fields and gardens looking for food: the females are now sitting on their huge nests placed on top of a chimney, the domes of the mosques, or any convenient corner on a roof. On the 7th I went across to a place called Tcherdak, on the Asiatic side, opposite Gallipoli, to try for Quail. We got six brace and a half, and some Calandra Larks, which are fine big fellows and very good in a pie. There were numbers of Bee-eaters flying about, and their brilliant plumage looked beautiful in the bright sun. They hawk about for flies something like Swallows, and keep up a monotonous croaking the whole time. I must have Bree's 'Birds of Europe' sent out to me, for I feel the want of this work. There are several birds about here I cannot make out. One of the prettiest is a Bunting with black head, yellow throat, breast and belly, and reddish back. I remember the figure very well, but forget the name of the bird. I have skinned one specimen. The female is not nearly so brightly coloured. Calandra, Crested and Short-toed Larks are common, as is one very pretty Wheatear (not Saxicola œnanthe) and several Warblers, Buntings, Pipits, &c, whose species I am not certain of. Little Kestrels are very common and tame, breeding among old tumble-down houses in the village of Bulair; as also are two kinds of Shrike I am not certain of. Buzzards, Urn Harriers, Magpies, Crows, Havens and Royston Grows feeding on carrion; on the beach Little Kinged Plovers, Common Sandpipers and Little Terns (the former and latter evidently breeding); in a marsh, Black Terns (breeding), Snipe, &c, and at the report of my gun two black and white Geese rose from the rushes. They were rather fat; their wings seemed to be black and most of their bodies white, and I fancy their heads black. I cannot make them out. Near this marsh I came upon a lot of Pratincoles hawking about for flies, and was much interested in watching them. They were ridiculously tame and pitched within twenty yards of me, and when flying often came within a few feet. On the ground they do not move much, but on the wing they are very graceful, flying and twisting about in an elegant manner after flies. I shot three of them, but was sorry to do so, they were such pretty innocent-looking creatures. The base of each mandible is bright vermilion; I do not remember this in any plate, so perhaps it may fade after death. Unfortunately my shot was too large, and I only managed to make one decent skin. The bird's crop was full of small beetles, mostly Brachelytra. Tell me, when next you write, where to look for their nests, for I fancy they may breed here. This is not much of a place for butterflies; there is hardly a tree in the country—all grass and a few stunted bushes. The