of the Seychelles Archipelago. 337 



Museum, collected by Dussuniier. I am not aware of any other 

 recorded specimens. Dr. Hartlaub afterwards altered the name 

 to N. seijchellensis (Orn. Madag. p. 35), without, however, stating 

 his reasons for so doing. 



Erijthrcena pulcherrima was correctly described and drawn by 

 Sonnerat under the name of " Pigeon violet k tete rouge d'An- 

 tigue " * (Antigue being the port of the island of Panay, and 

 not the island of Antigua in the West Indies as has been 

 supposed). Sonnerat had, previously to his visit to Panay, 

 touched at Seychelles; and I can only suppose that some con- 

 fusion must have existed in his collections, and that he had 

 mistaken the locality from which he had obtained the species. 

 Since then many specimens have been brought to Europe, and 

 it is the best known of Seychelles birds in collections. 



Turtur rostratus was named by Bonaparte (Consp. Av. ii. 

 p. 62) from a specimen in the Paris Museum, brought from 

 Seychelles by Dussumier. I can find no record of any other 

 specimen in European collections. 



In 3864, Lady Barkly obtained from Seychelles a live bird, 

 called there the " Pie chanteuse-j" it lived for about two months, 

 and on its death she very kindly gave it to me ; it proved to be 

 an undescribed species, and has been named Copsychus sechellarum 

 (Ibis, 1865, p. 331, pi. viii.). 



Now, from the above, it will be seen that hitherto only five 

 land-birds had been recorded as existing at Seychelles, and that 

 these five were all peculiar to the Archipelago. 



During a residence of upwards of seven years at Mauritius I 

 had had no opportunity of visiting these islands, and I had pro- 

 cured but very few specimens from them ; accordingly I deter- 

 mined, when coming to Europe on leave, to stop a month on my 

 way, the steamers of the French Company " Messageries Impe- 

 rials " calling there regularly on their route between Mauritius 

 and Aden, 



I left Mauritius on the 18th of January last on board the 

 steamer ' Emirne,^ and arrived ofi" St. Denis, Reunion, at sunrise 

 on the following morning. As soon as we had obtained pra- 

 tique I lauded and called upon M. Lantz, of the Jardin des 

 * Voyage a la Nouvelle Guinde, p. 112, pi. 67. 



N.S. VOL. III. 2 A 



