272 cook's voyage to april, 



principally to frequent the coast, come into the 

 Sound in bad weather, and sometimes perch upon 

 the trees. Amongst some other birds, of which the 

 natives either brought fragments or dried skins, we 

 could distinguish a small species of hawk, a heron, 

 and the alcyon or large-crested American king-fisher. 

 There are also some which I believe are not men- 

 tioned, or at least vary very considerably, from the 

 accounts given of them by any writers who have 

 treated professedly on this part of natural history. 

 The first two of these are species of wood-peckers. 

 One less than a thrush, of a black colour above, with 

 white spots on the wings, a crimson head, neck and 

 breast, and a yellowish olive-coloured belly; from 

 which last circumstance it might, perhaps, not im- 

 properly be called the yellow-bellied wood-pecker. 

 The other is a larger, and much more elegant bird, 

 of a dusky brown colour, on the upper part, richly 

 waved with black, except about the head ; the belly 

 of a reddish cast, with round black spots ; a black 

 spot on the breast ; and the under-side of the wings 

 and tail of a plain scarlet colour, though blackish 

 above ; with a crimson streak running from the angle 

 of the mouth, a little down the neck on each side. 

 The third and fourth are a small bird of the finch 

 kind, about the size of a linnet, of a dark dusky 

 colour, whitish below, with a black head and neck, 

 and white bill ; and a sand-piper, of the size of a 

 small pigeon, of a dusky brown colour, and white 

 below, except the throat and breast, with a broad 

 white band across the wings. There are also hum- 

 ming-birds, which yet seem to differ from the nu- 

 merous sorts of this delicate animal already known, 

 unless they be a mere variety of the irochilns colubris 

 of Linnaeus. These perhaps inhabit more to the 

 southward, and spread northward as the season ad- 

 vances ; because we saw none at first, though near the 

 time of our departure the natives brought them to 

 the ships in great numbers. 



