152 UNEXPFCCTED ARRIVALS. 



eyes of skate I have observed a beautiful yellowish fringed membrane, 

 which they have the power of drawing up below the orbit, and spreading 

 over the whole of the eye at pleasure. ~No doubt this is a wise provision 

 for protecting the eye. 



Montagu's Sucking Fish, (Liparis Montagui.) — On the same day one of 

 these was taken from a haddock's stomach, that was caught in thirty fathoms 

 of water, with rocky bottom. 



Starry Ray, (Raia radiata.) — On the 10th. of February, a fine male 

 was hooked in fifty fathoms on muddy bottom. It measured one foot four 

 inches in length, and ten inches and a quarter in breadth. This species, 

 like the two other, contracts itself into a basin-shape, when taken from 

 the water. 



Macdujf, February 23rd., 1857. 



UNEXPECTED ARRIVALS. 



On the 22nd. of September, 1843, on board the good ship General 

 Hewitt, bound for Sydney, we were visited by several land-birds. I am 

 sorry to find that I have not noted the exact position of the vessel on 

 that day, but only that we were about three degrees north of the equator. 



However, from the track usually followed by outward-bound vessels, we 

 must have been several hundred miles distant from the land. We had 

 experienced heavy gales of wind accompanied with drizzling rain and fogs 

 for two or three days previously. Early in the morning a pair of Herons 

 came slowly flapping along, and perched on the rigging; they were so 

 exhausted as to allow themselves to be caught with the hand. After these 

 a bird flew several times round the ship in sight of the passengers, who 

 pronounced it to be a Woodcock, but as it did not alight we could not 

 be certain. Towards the afternoon arrived four Swallows, (Hirundines 

 urbis,) and two Water Wagtails. They all seemed very tired, and flew 

 with wearied wing. They remained with us all that day, and perched at 

 night on the ropes of the ship close together. 



The next morning one of the Herons was found dead, and as its com- 

 panion refused to eat, we gave it its liberty, and away it flew; but it 

 had not strength to go far, and we saw it fall into the sea, where it 

 doubtless perished. The other little strangers seemed to have quite recovered 

 their health and strength; the Swallows hawked about the deck for flies, 

 and even ventured into the cabin, passing in and out of the doors, and 

 through the port holes of the cabins. They consisted of two old and 

 two young ones, the latter not having moulted their nestling feathers; 

 from which fact I concluded that they were not on their autumnal 

 migration, but must have been blown off from the land, or lost their way 



