of the Seychelles Archipelago. 343 



nest, it deposits its single egg — chasing oue another and playing, 

 generally three in the party, the young one and the two parents, 

 for some minutes — and then retiring to rest in the shade, all 

 three sitting in a row, a very happy family. On the day I 

 arrived, I saw one sitting very tamely in a badamier tree close 

 to Government House, and at about fifteen feet from the 

 ground ; on going immediately under her, I could see she was 

 sitting on an egg, which was placed near the fork of two hori- 

 zontal and nearly parallel branches, without any nest, so that the 

 egg lay on the branches, between which it was visible from be- 

 neath ; the egg would have hatched in a few days. On the 

 22nd of February I got another egg from the same spot, pro- 

 bably the produce of the same bird. The young are as white 

 as their parents. 



These four birds, and also a species of Swift, of what species 

 I am uncertain, may be seen constantly in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the town ; but to see any others it is necessary to 

 go further into the island. 



On the 26th January, while walking by the side of a small 

 marsh at the Anse Nord-Ouest, I saw and shot two small 

 Bitterns. These birds apparently are the same as specimens in 

 the British Museum labelled as the Ardeola lepida, Horsf., 

 from Java. Why this species should have found its way across 

 the Indian Ocean, and have skipped Ceylon and other places, is 

 more than 1 can say. It is quite different from the Madagascar 

 species, A. podiceps, and from the European A. minuta. I was 

 informed that it made its nest in bushes and laid white eggs. 

 So far as I could learn, the species was nowhere numerous 

 throughout the islands. In the same marsh I hunted in vain 

 for "Ponies d'eau,^^ which were said to be numerous; but I 

 never was fortunate enough to meet with one there, and I am 

 therefore ignorant of the species. This same afternoon, close to 

 the town and on the sands, I shot a Plover {^gialites geojfroyi) 

 and a Stint [Tringa minuta), both of which species were com- 

 mon, and, while I was there, of daily occurrence. 



On the 28th we went to the Foret Niol. We first crossed 

 over the low ridge at the foot of the Trois Freres, descended 

 towards Anse Nord-Ouest, and, turning to the left, went up 



