344 Mr. E. Newton's Second Visit to Madagascar. 



branches, jerking her tail and uttering a low harsh note, some- 

 thing like a watchman's rattle. I was too close to shoot ; but it 

 was no use increasing the distance, as then I lost sight of her 

 altogether. So I drew both powder and shot, reloaded with 

 only half a charge of each, and fired through the thick bush. 

 On going to the spot, to my disgust, I found I had missed ; and 

 as the morning was damp, and my powder none of the best, the 

 smoke hung heavily for some minutes close round, making me 

 afraid it would drive the bird away. Just then a very heavy 

 shower came on, wetting me through ; but the biixl reappearing in 

 the bushes, I shot again and again, to no purpose. Two minutes 

 after, the man who was with me made a grab at the nest, and, to 

 my astonishment, I found he had caught the bird in his hands. 



It was a female. Iris hazel, upper mandible dark brown, 

 lower yellowish, legs lead-colour. 



The eggs, in long diameter "86 inch, and transverse diameter 

 •59 inch, are of a pale madder-pink, blotched and streaked in 

 Bunting-like lines with darker shades of the same colour, so as 

 to be not at all unlike some eggs of Anthus arhoreus. 



The nest is composed outwardly of dead leaves of coarse grass, 

 and inwardly of fine flower-stalks of some plant. 



24. Calamoherpe newtoni, Hartlaub, Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 May 12, 1863 *. 



" Vorombendrana." 



This species is not at all uncommon on the river and lakes 

 where bulrushes grow, near Soamandrikazay. The male is often 

 seen perched on the top of a tall rush or projecting twig on the 

 bank, singing nearly as sweetly as a European Nightingale. 



On the 9th of September we found the nest of this bird, con- 



* We subjoin Dr. Hartlaub's description of this new species : — 

 "Calamoherpe newtoni, nob. 



" S • Supra obscurius olivascens, subunicolor, subtus multo pallidior, medio 

 snbtlavicans ; mento gulaque albidis ; jugulo maculis longitudinalibus 

 fuscis conspicue notato ; subalaribus flavo-albidis ; subcaudalibus ob- 

 scuris ; maxilla fusca, mandibula obscure aurantiaco-rubente, ore 

 interno laete aurantiaco ; iride helvola. Long. (5^" ; rostr. a fr. (J^'" ; 

 rostr. a rict. 9'" ; al. 2" 7" ; caud. 3"; tars. 11'". 



"Ala brevis. Cauda longa, rotundata, rectricibus angustatis, apice rotun- 

 dato-attenuatis." — Ed. 



