104 Letters, Announcements, b^c. 



encountered during my trips by sea to various parts of the 

 world. During my recent voyage from the Cape I fell in with 

 so many land-birds far out at sea that I cannot refrain from 

 again troubling you with a few notes. 



We sailed from Table Bay on the 4th of October last ; we 

 may call it our first spring month, perhaps. The usual Cape 

 birds accompanied us till nightfall, Diomedca melanophrys, Pro- 

 cellaria cequinoctialis, P.giguntea, P.capensis and the little T%a- 

 lassidroma ivilsoni. Next morning only the two latter were in 

 any numbers, and an occasional P. macroptera, easily distin- 

 guishable by its large bill, swept past us. On the third day all 

 had left us save the Storm-petrels {T. vnJsoni), which were in 

 gi'eater numbers than I had ev^er seen before, and I managed 

 to snare two of them with black thread. 



They remained with us in diminishing numbers till we reached 

 St. Helena ; indeed we saw an odd bird now and then till we 

 came to the Bay of Biscay. At St. Helena we fell in with 

 Gygis Candida and Anous stolidus in considerable flocks. My 

 friend Mr. Melliss, whose name has already appeared in these 

 pages, gladdened our ears with the mtelligeuce that the English 

 Thrushes, Blackbirds, and other songsters which he had intro- 

 duced, had thriven well, and that in the cool mornings the air 

 resounded with their melody from many a wooded dell. One of 

 the artillerymen had seen a Thrushes nest with four eggs. 



Leaving St. Helena, we steamed an uninteresting course to 

 Ascension, where we arrived early in the morning. A Frigate- 

 bird [Fregata aquila) paid great attention to the dogvane of our 

 foremast head, and succeeded in tearing away half of the bunting. 

 Had it not been Sunday, I would have let my Westly Richards 

 speak to him on the subject. Onychoprion fuliginosus, the bird 

 of " Wide-awake ^^ Fair, and a few Gannets [Sula piscatrix "i) , 

 in young plumage, were in ample abundance ; the latter perched 

 on our jibboom-end, but were not such boobies as to let them- 

 selves be caught. 



Two days after we left St. Helena we came to grief, breaking 

 our last spare piston-rod (one had gone previously), and we had 

 to proceed with but one engine. This obliged us to consult the 

 wind, and alter our course ; and we passed Senegal on the 24th, 



