352 Mr. E. Newton on the Land-Birds 



is brought thence. The only inhabitants are the guardian (a 

 Creole Indian of Mauritius) and his wife, and three or four men 

 whom he employs in the cultivation of maize and rice. With a 

 very considerable forest on the south-west side, one would 

 naturally suppose animal life would be abundant ; but 1 walked 

 nearly round the island immediately on my arrival, and the only 

 land-birds I saw or heard were the Colibris and some " Poules 

 marronues," the domestic fowls which have run wild and bred in 

 some numbers all over the island. On the top of the island, 

 which may be perhaps 1000 feet high, there are said to be some 

 Arabic inscriptions. Though I visited this spot I did not discover 

 them. In the afternoon a sudden squall with thunder and light- 

 ning raised a heavy surf on Marianne, and our boatman declined 

 risking his boat in it ; so there was nothing left but to sleep at 

 Felicite — a great waste of time, as neither of us had a single 

 thing to do in the evening. 



The next morning as soon as our boat was launched and 

 laden, we sailed for Marianne, ran easily through the pass' 

 in the reef, and landed about a quarter past eight. Marianne 

 is only about a mile and a half in length by half a mile in breadth, 

 and its height, I should judge, not more than 400 or 500 feet. 

 On the north side it is tolerably wooded, but, I should ima- 

 gine, not with any very large trees ; altogether from the sea it 

 looked but a poor place for a naturalist. On landing, however, 

 our ideas wei-e soon changed : as many notes of birds were to be 

 heard as on a fine May day in the eastern counties of England. 

 On walking up to the guardian's house, situated about one 

 hundred yards from the landing-place, in a clump of badamier and 

 tamarind trees, I saw several " Pies/' and in twenty minutes I 

 had got as many birds as would occupy me best part of the day 

 in skinning them. 



The " Pie chanteuse " is the boldest and most familiar bird 

 I ever saw. It will approach within a few feet, and when 

 sitting on a branch of a tx'ce will allow itself to be knocked down 

 with a stick as one was while I was there, by a man whom we 

 brought with us. They are also said to enter houses. 



They feed on the ground as well as among bushes and trees. 

 The gizzards of those I skinned contained remains of small mille- 



