346 Mr. E. Newton on the Land-Birds 



plain appearance. This morning, too, close by the same place, 

 I saw a male Fuudia madagascariensis, evidently introduced; I 

 saw this species afterwards near the same place. My Creole 

 servant, who was with me, did not know either of these birds, 

 but thought that the Zosterops was a female " Colibri," and the 

 " Cardinal " he had never seen before. I also shot a young 

 Turtur piduratus, and saw another one. This bird is called 

 " Pigeon " or " Tourterelle rouge," and was introduced, it is 

 said, some few years ago by a late Inspector of Police. It is 

 not very common, and I saw^ it nowhere else. On my return by 

 the sea-shore, I saw a Greenshank {Totanus glottis) and a Sand- 

 piper [Actitis hijpoleucus). 



On the 31st I got a specimen of the large " Corbijeu," which 

 does not appear to me to differ from the ordinary Numenius 

 arcuatiis. These birds are generally very wild and difficult to 

 approach, and require a gun-cartridge to bring them down. 

 They are not nearly so common as their congener N. phceopus. 



The weather for the next few days was bad, with heavy 

 squalls of wind, as is common during this monsoon ; and we were 

 out but little. I got some more specimens of Zosterops modestUy 

 and was surprised to find that the males were sometimes smaller 

 than the females. I had not observed this peculiarity in others 

 of the genus. 



On one of these evenings, when the weather was finer, I went 

 out in the bay, with Mr. Ward, to spear fish by torchlight; 

 this amusement, when fish are abundant, I have no doubt is 

 a most exciting one. The mode of operation is to go in a large 

 canoe, the spearsmen sitting in the bow, each armed with various 

 sorts of harpoons or fish-spears ; amidships two men stand up, 

 holding aloft dead branches of cocoanut-trees lighted, these 

 are renewed as they are burnt out, to the great detriment of the 

 hats, clothes, and whiskers of the expectant fishermen, a shower 



cliondriis bnmneo tinctis, annulo periophthalmico niveo, loris nigris ; 

 remigibus rectricibusqiie fuscis, illis externe griseo limbatis, et interne 

 albido marginatis ; rostro griseo ; pedibus obscure plumbeis. 

 Long, tota circa 4-8, aloe 2-3, acrotarsi 0'72, dig. med. sine ungue 0'46, 

 hallucis sine ungue 0-3, inaxill.ne a fronte 0"41, ejusdem a rictu 0'58, man- 

 dibular ab articulo O'Oo poll. Angl. 

 Fvemina mari onanino siniilis. 



