Mr. A. Newton's two Days at Madeira. 191 



pomatorhinus *) were in close attendance on our ship, and about 

 as many more round each of two other craft, weather-bound, 

 like ourselves. They were very tame, coming close alongside 

 the quarter-deck in quest of food ; and dire was the strife, and 

 loud the contention, as one lucky bird after another seized on 

 some choice morsel and conveyed it far astern to devour it at 

 leisure. Late in the evening of the 23rd the wind shifted, the 

 glass rose ; and shortly before midnight we had our steam up, 

 our anchor weighed, and we were rounding, first, Berry Head, 

 then the Start, and then were fairly on our course for Funchal. 

 The next few days were passed as days are commonly passed at 

 sea. We had favourable weather, and the passengers came 

 gradually creeping up on deck, as flies show themselves in the 

 first sunny days of spring. Two or three Gulls — apparently 

 Kittiwakes [Rissa tridactyla) — occasionally convoyed us ; and 

 the various persons on board slowly fraternized. I was gratified 

 to find several representatives of zoological science among my 

 companions, — Mr. William Hinton, to whom Mr. E. Vernon 

 Harcourt was indebted for many ornithological facts, as recorded 

 in his earliest paper; Mr. J. Y. Johnson, who has lately pur- 

 sued the subject of Madeiran ichthyology with as much zeal as 

 success ; and Mr. Robert Swift, the well-known conchologist of 

 St. Thomas, West Indies. On the 28th, about noon, we were 

 boarded by a pretty Saxicoline bird, no doubt a South-European 

 species, and, I should suppose, either Saxicola stapazina or S. au- 

 rita ; but as it was to all appearance a young bird in the first 

 plumage, and I am not acquainted with either form in its im- 

 mature dress, I could not be certain. It was tame enough, but 

 declined to take any notice of a few crumbs of bread (all I had 

 to offer by way of hospitality) ; and it did not stay with us very 

 long. About 5 o'clock in the evening, land was announced on 

 the starboard bow, which our captain recognized as Porto Santo. 

 By the time I got on deck it was shrouded in a heavy rain- 

 cloud, and required some amount of faith to believe in its ex- 

 istence. Later it became much plainer, and we ran by it, then 



* I fully accept Herr Preyer's derivation of the name of this bird, 

 commonly written " pomarinus," and Dr. Selater's emendation of the same 

 (' Ibis/ 1862, p. 297). 



