Letters^ Announcements, 6fc. 249^ 



I have little to record of ornithological lore during our voyage. 

 We left Southampton on the 8th of November in rather bad 

 weather, and few of our usual coast-birds were about. Plymouth 

 was left on the 10th, and we next sighted the Spanish coast 

 about Finisterra in moderate weather ; here we fell in with 

 flocks of Guillemots [Uria troile) and Little Auks [Mergulus 

 idle), the latter chiefly in pairs. We saw no more birds thence 

 to the Canary Islands, off" which we saw Terns and Gannets; 

 the latter were, I think, Sula melanops^. 



Our next visitor surprised me. In lat. 3° 2' N., long. 10" 

 47' W., a " Cape Pigeon " {Daption capensis) accompanied the 

 ship for some distance. I have never seen this bird so far north 

 in any of my voyages ; and so said Captain Dickson and the 

 officers of the ship. In lat. 1° 35' S., long. 9° 15' W., a flock 

 of Onychoprion fuliginosus passed us early in the morning. On 

 the 2nd of December, lat. 4° 21' S., long. 8° 25' W., a Frigate- 

 bird hovered for a short time over our mast, aijd a " school " of 

 porpoises gambolled below. These are all the birds we saw till 

 we made St. Helena, except when running into St. Vincent's 

 (Cape Verde Islands) on the 22nd, when, of course, a few Terns 

 were present. \ have never seen a Gull there, which surprises 

 me. The island was looking green and, for St. Vincent's, lovely. 

 To my great vexation we were put in quarantine, because we 

 had not a clean bill of health from Portsmouth. I had pro- 

 mised myself a little Quail-shooting and some specimens of 

 Passer jag oensis, but could only "look and long." The consul 

 told me Quail were more plentiful than he had ever known them, 

 and his son had that morning shot five brace, close to his house, 

 which we could see most invitingly from the ship. An Osprey 

 flew over us as we lay at anchor. I have never been in here 

 without seeing several of these fine fish-hawks. Neophron perc- 

 nopterus did not seem so abundant as on my first visit twelve 

 years ago ; perhaps the increase of the town has scared them. 



We landed at St. Helena on the morning of the 6th of 



December. I had written by a previous mail to my friend 



Mr. Mellis, begging him to have horses ready to enable me to 



reach the spot where the " Wire-birds " lived ; and as soon as 



* [Qu. S. melanural — Eu.] 



^*^ 



