122 A NATURALIST ON THE "CHALLENGER." 



The thrush (Nesociclda eremita) looks like a very dark- 

 coloured song thrush, but it is peculiar for its remarkably 

 strong acutely ridged bill. It is peculiar to the Tristan group. 

 It feeds especially on the berries of the little Nertera ; but also 

 is fond of picking the bones of the victims of the predatory 

 gull (Stercorarius antarcticus). The finch eats the fruit of the 

 Phylica. 



It was here 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 thrush and finch 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 ap- 

 proached 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. 



The finch seems to have become extinct in Tristan da Cunha 

 itself. Yon Willemoes Suhm was told that the Tristan da 

 Cunha people had tried to introduce the bird into their island.* 



We were in search of another land bird, a kind of Water-Hen 

 (Galimda nesiotis), which is found on the higher plateau at 

 Tristan, and is described by the inhabitants as scarcely able to 

 fly. We could not meet with a specimen. Only very few 

 inhabit the low land under the cliffs, and we were not able to 

 land at the only place from which the higher main plateau of 

 the island is to be reached. 



The Germans said that the Inaccessible Island bird is much 



* I presume that the Neospiza Acuhnce of Cabanis, described from old 

 specimens from Bullock's collection, is the Emberiza Braziliensis of Car- 

 michael. No second species of finch was seen or heard of by us as 

 existing now in the islands. The genus Neospiza is peculiar to the 

 Tristan group, but of South American affinity. Crithagra imularis, the 

 other finch described by Cabanis as found in the group, is a peculiar 

 species allied to African forms. A list of the Tristan land birds collected 

 by the " Challenger " has not yet appeared. 



