Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/273

Rh Verona, beyond Villafranca. It is very near the magnificent Villa Canossa, from which it is separated by an iron gate; it is surrounded by a wide ditch, and marshes on one side, with a field partly laid out as a garden; on the other two with the country, which is covered with rice fields, meadows, and corn fields. The ground is intersected by numerous narrow channels. The wood is composed of plane trees, elms, oaks, poplars, chestnuts, &c, the greatest height of which may be about forty metres; it has a flourishing appearance, and the vegetation is splendid, but there are no firs. Ardea cinerea and A. purpurea, Corvus cornix, Nycticorax ardeola, Ardeola ralloides, and Corvus corax breed here; there are also quantities of Turtle-Doves, Golden Orioles, Blackbirds, Woodpeckers, and other smaller birds. In winter Buteo vulgaris is also found here, but, according to the inhabitants of the Castle, disappears as soon as Milvus migrans arrives.

In the Province of Verona, Milvus migrans is only to be found at Grezzano, "perhaps," says the Rev. Carcereri, "because it is attracted by the high trees; perhaps, because in that region and the neighbourhood it procures the food which it prefers, which consists of young chickens, when it can find them. Only two specimens are believed to have been killed at Chiesanuova, a mountainous spot to the north of Verona. One of these has been cited by Dal Nero. With these exceptions none have been seen except at Grezzano. It is simply a summer bird, since it arrives in spring, and leaves at the end of summer after having bred.

The following dates represent our information as to the arrival and departure of the Black Kite at and from Grezzano:—