452 Zoological Society. 



enabled to accompany the parent birds, I observed they all left the 

 breeding or roosting-place in the morning and did not again return 

 till evening, apparently the first comers waiting the arrival of the 

 last before finally roosting for the night ; it is when thus assembling 

 that the amazing number is seen to perfection : even Audubon, who 

 has been so accustomed to see such vast flocks of the passenger pigeon, 

 could hardly avoid expressing surprise if he had an opportunity of 

 seeing these birds at sunset, moving in one immense mass over and 

 around their roosting-place ; while the noise of the old birds' quack 

 and the piping whistle of the young ones is almost deafening. This 

 bird, like its congener, lays but a single egg ; it commences incu- 

 bating in December, and appears to be the exclusive inhabitant of 

 the mangroves ; and while sitting on its egg or tending its young is 

 as easily caught as the Noddy, suffering itself to be taken off its nest 

 rather than leave it. As an article of food it was the favourite, 

 several hundreds being killed almost daily during our stay on the 

 island. From the circumstance of this bird inhabiting the upper 

 branches may be attributed its numbers being greater than any 

 other of the numerous birds which inhabit the islands, the lizards 

 being unable to climb the branches with the facility necessary for 

 capturing their prey, and it thus escapes their repeated attacks, to 

 which the others must at all times be subject on the ground." 



Mr. L. Fraser laid upon the table three new species of Birds, which 

 he described as 



Lagopus ferrugineus. Lag. dorso, humeris, et uropygio, nitide 



ferrugineis ; singulis plumis in medio fusco not at is ; capite et collo 



fuscis ; plumarum radicibus albis ; primariis cinereis ; caudd su- 



perne cinered,ferrugineo marginatd et ad apicem alba ; femoribus 



tarsisque ferrugineis nigro at que albo, vix distinct e fasciatis ; 



rostro et unguibus nigris, ceromate et digitis flavis. 



Upper surface dark brown, mottled slightly with white on the head 



and neck ; tail above the basal half white, terminal brown, totally 



white beneath, the feathers on the breast having brown quills and 



those on the sides and thighs spotted with brown. 



Total length 23^ in. ; wings, 17 ; tail, 10 ; gape, 1 J ; tarsi, 3. 

 Hal. Mexico. 

 Mus. Zool. Soc. Lond. 



There are three specimens of this bird in different stages of plu- 

 mage in the Society's collection, all from Mexico ; one was presented 

 by John Taylor, Esq., another by N. A. Vigors, Esq. 



Psittacus Timneh. Ps. saturate cinereus, uropygio, abdomine imo, 

 crisso, et femoribus pallide cinereis, caudd saturate ferrugineo- 

 rubrd, rectricibus singulis acutis. 

 Hab. Timneh country, Sierra Leone. 



Le Perroquet cendre noir ; Le Vaillant, Hist. Nat. des Perroquets, 

 pi. 102. 



Mus. Zool. Soc. Lond. 



This bird is confined to that part of Western Africa near Sierra 

 Leone ; it is never seen so low down as Cape Coast, which is the 



