112 



THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



tussock-grass a few feet from the ground iu the beginning of October, and lays usually 

 two eggs, which resemble those of the Black-bird (Tardus merula). 



"It was here," Mr Moseley continues, "that we first encountered that remarkable 

 tameness and ignorance of danger in birds which has been so constantly noticed by 

 voyagers landing on little frequented islands, and notably by Darwin, who dilates on the 

 fact in his account of the Galapagos Archipelago. 



"The Thrushes hopped unconcernedly within a yard or two of us, whilst stone after 

 stone was hurled at them, and till they were knocked over, and often sat still on a bough 

 to be felled with a walking-stick. By whistling a little as one approached them, numbers 

 could be thus killed, and yet the Germans with their house close by had been constantly 

 thus killing the thrushes for eating for two years. The birds are, however, not quite so 

 tame in Tristan Island." 



2. Nesospiza acunhce (PI. XXIV.). 



Embertza brasUierms, Carui., Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. xii. p. 496. 

 Nesospiza acunhce, Cab., Journ. fur Orn., 1873, p. 154. 



Five examples of this peculiar Finch were obtained in Inaccessible Island on October 

 16, 1873. The eyes are marked "hazel." There is little difference in the plumage of 

 these specimens, of which the sex is not noted. The figures are taken from specimen d. 





Head, foot, and wing of Nesospiza acunhce. 



Dr Cabanis described this species from a specimen in the Berlin Museum, which was 

 bought at the dispersal by auction of the Bullock Collection. He described at the same 

 time another Finch (Crithagra insidaris), also stated to be from Tristan da Cunha, but 

 which the Challenger naturabsts do not appear to have heard anything of. It is very 

 likely that there may have been some error in the locabty of the last-named species. 



Mr Moseley met with this Finch on Inaccessible Island in the same spot as the 

 Nesocichla. It eats the fruit of the Phylica arborea, of which the copses that it 

 inhabits are composed. This Finch is stated to be now extinct in Tristan da Cunha 



