Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870 edition. Excerpt: ... MALTA. PART I. INTRODUCTORY. When I first set foot on the Maltese islands, June 22, 1860, an impression came over me that I could not have selected a more uninviting and uninteresting locality for the study of the natural sciences--bare, weather-beaten, rocky, and sterile to a degree, no woods, and scarcely a tree to be seen anywhere--all surface verdure burnt up by a semitropical sun and the dreaded sirocco, were the appearances that greeted my arrival, and, for the time being, damped my ardour in the pursuits of natural objects. Resolved, however, to inquire into the capabilities of the islands from a natural-history point of view, I set to work to obtain all the information relative to what had been already accomplished, and at length bethought myself of first studying the ornithology of the region, more especially the migratory birds which pass and repass annually on their ways to Europe and Africa. Accordingly, as the heats of summer declined, and other and more genial seasons came and went, I found ample occupation in making collections and noting the names and numerical prevalence of the various birds of passage which make the islands their " half-way house." It became soon apparent, however, that the same laws as regards times of arrival, and numbers of each species, were found to be here, as elsewhere, remarkably regular, so that I was enabled, after several years' experience, to estimate the relative proportions of each with considerable certainty. I set also to work to study the rock formations and collect whatever data I could in connection with the geological history of the little island group, standing out in the centre of the great inland sea, and within sight of Sicily, to which, I thought, it would be important to...
