Letters, Announcements, ^c. 251 



found I had a bird with which I was not acquainted, though 

 closely resembling several of the small Charadriidxe common 

 in various places. 



While sitting on the ground arranging the feathers of my 

 bird, and wondering what it could tiud to eat in such barren 

 spots, I detected some odd-looking excrescences on the blocks 

 of scoria about us, and a closer examination showed these to be 

 small shells of the genus Succinea. These, together with 

 Coleoptera, form, as I discovered by their stomachs, their chief 

 food. A little stalking and dodging procured me four more 

 specimens, and I returned to the steamer well satisfied with my 

 day's work. 



Mr. Mellis informs me that they lay three or four eggs, of a 

 pale colour (whitish) dotted with black, in the centre of a mass 

 of cow-dung, making no nest, that they remain in the island 

 throughout the year, and frequent open plains — water seemed 

 no attraction to them. They are called " Wire-birds," from 

 the fact that their legs are long and thin. I suppose they 

 appear absurdly so to the aborigines of the island, who have so 

 few birds to look at. 



On comparing my specimens with C.pecaarius,Te,Tava., I find 

 them to be larger every way, and to be lighter on the breast 

 and belly. They come, however, very close*. 



On the 11th December, lat. 28° 23' S., long. 0° 20' E., at 

 nightfall, we passed a flock of " Cape Hens," {Procellaria 

 aquinoctialis) roosting on the water : these were the first we 



* [Mr. G. R. Gray has most kindly given us his valuable assistance in 

 the determination of the specimens sent us by Mr. Layard. The species 

 appears to correspond accurately with that described and figured by 

 Temminck as Charadrius pecuarius (PI. Col. 183), the type of which is 

 said to have come from the Cape of Good Hope. A smaller species, 

 however, seems to have usurped the name bestowed by that naturalist, 

 and to have been confounded with the true jE. pecuarius by the majority 

 of authors. This we beheve to be the ^. kittlitzi of Prof. Reichenbach 

 (Synops. Avium, lab. cv. fig. 1063). It would seem to be not uncommon 

 at the Cape, where we should presume that the true jE. pecuarius is rare, 

 from the fact of its being previously unknown to an ornithologist with so 

 much experience as Mr. Layard— if, indeed, it ever does occur there ; for the 

 localities assigned bv Temminck are not, as a rule, to be entirely trusted. 



