342 Mr. E. Newton on the Land-Birds 



did not show any yellow under the wing ; but at Marianne, 

 on 12th February, I obtained two males which had the bright 

 flame-coloured axillary tuft fully developed. At first I thought 

 these were of a different species; but on my return to Praslin 

 and Mahe, and shooting several specimens, I found that all the 

 males had then assumed their full plumage, which they evidently 

 had not done when I shot my first specimen on the 25th 

 January. The axillary tufts, so far as my experience goes, are 

 not visible in the living bird, the feathers of the breast covering 

 them entirely; and I never observed them as Mr. Tristram 

 did those of the allied species, N. osea (Ibis, 1865, p. 74), when 

 the bird was singing. In habits the Nectarinm resemble the 

 Certhiolce more than any other group with which I am acquainted 

 — always restless, hanging head downwards to get at an insect on 

 the under surface of a leaf, then flying off to a flower (not 

 darting like a Humming-bird), and back again to the same 

 tree. The male constantly sings from the top of a tree or from 

 a dead and exposed branch. The song is hurried, but not 

 unlike that of a Goldfinch. The ordinary call is one note 

 quickly repeated three or four times. Mr. Nevill had two 

 nests brought to him, one containing a young one almost fully 

 fledged, the other an egg ; the nests were exactly like others of 

 the family which have been described (Ibis, 1863, p. 302, and 

 1865, p. 76). The egg is greenish white-freckled, suffused and 

 blotched with umber-brown chiefly at the larger end. It is 

 •75 inch in length, and "4] in breadth. 



The commonest bird in Mahe is the " Martin " [Acridotheres 

 tristis), introduced from Mauritius, and now nearly as abundant 

 as it is there. It may have been a successful rival to the 

 " Pie chanteuse,^' and in the struggle for existence helped the 

 cats and rats to exterminate it in this part of the island. It is 

 said not to thrive on all the islands. 



" Tourterelle " [Geopelia s/?-2a/a) , also introduced from Mauri- 

 tius, is very common and tame; I saw it all over the lower 

 parts of the island 1 visited. 



The snow-white "Goeland^' {Gygis Candida) is always to be 

 seen flying round the clamps of badamier trees {Terminalia) , 

 on the horizontal branches of which, without constructing any 



