536 Bulletin of I he Biitish 



kinds l)y tlic liurrioane of September 1898 luid been very 

 great. A small bronze-green Humming-bird, wbieh had 

 before been the commonest and boldest bird in the island, 

 had, it was believed, entirely disappeared. During the seven 

 weeks of Mr. Dasent's stay he had not noticed one of these 

 birds, though on previous visits they were to be seen, sitting 

 on telephone wires &c., and as plentiful as Swallows iu 

 summer in England. Mr. Thompson, the Administrator, 

 liad told him that since the hurricane he had neither himself, 

 nor had he met with anyone who had, ob>^erved one of these 

 birds. Two other Humming-birds, formerly less common 

 than the extinguished species, still existed in the island, but 

 in much reduced numbers. 



A Parrot, usually to be found only with difficulty in the 

 mountain forests, and a Pigeon (known locally as '' Ra- 

 mier") — also an exceptionally shy bird — after the hurricane 

 came about, and even into, the towns in search of food, in 

 large numbers (the Parrots singly, the Pigeons in small 

 parties), many of them in such an exhausted state as to be 

 easily caught by hand. 



Mr. Scr.ATER called attention to tlie Report of the Society 

 for the Protection of Birds (of whicdi he was one of the 

 Vice-Presidents) as adopted at the Anniversary Meeting on 

 26th February last. Mr. Sclater was quite in accord with 

 the general objects of this Society as explained in their 

 prospectus, although, as regards pi-otective legislation, he was 

 of opinion that interference in this matter by Acts of Parlia- 

 ment might be sometimes carried too far. He thought, 

 however, that every lover of birds would do well to join the 

 Society. 



Mr. Sclater stated that Messrs. Goodfellow and Hamilton 

 (who were present as guests on this occasion) had lately 

 returned from a successful expedition in the Colombian and 

 Equatorian Andes, during which they had made a collection 

 of upwards of 5000 bird-skins, comprising examples of many 

 rare species. The travellers had landed at Buenaventura on 

 the Pacific coast iu April 1898, and bad thence crossed the 



