In the Neighbourhood of Salisbury. 245 



after the other, like a cat, when, with her head knowingly cocked 

 on one side, and her tail stiffened, she will pause for severaljseconds, 

 and having satisfied herself of the exact whereabouts o£ " Chloropus/* 

 with one pounce out he comes. 



Aramides Cayannensis. " Cayenne Rail/^ I must apologise for 

 mentioning this bird amongst my list of the rarer birds of Wiltshire, 

 but as I can vouch for the following facts I really think they deserve 

 a place in this paper. In the October of 1876 I walked into Footers 

 shop, at Bath (the bird-stuffer's there), as is my usual custom 

 whereverl go, and enquired if he had come across any rarities of late. 

 To this he answered, " Well, Sir, I have had a bird brought to me 

 in the flesh only yesterday, which was killed on the river between 

 Trowbridge and Bradford, and the like of which I have never seea 

 before " ; and on his producing it, sure enough it was to me a " rara 

 aois." I knew not what it was, saving that it was evidently a 

 Gallimde, and not a British one. It was rather larger than our 

 Moorhen, and quite of a different colour. The legs and iris of eye- 

 were of a rich crimson lake ; beak light green, inclining to yellow 

 at the base ; head, neck, and thighs, pure grey ; back, bright olive 

 green ; tail, tail coverts, and vent, black ; its breast was rich rufous 

 brown, and its wings bright brown, with a touch of crimson on the 

 quills. On the underside of the wing the axilliaries were beautifully 

 barred with rufous and black, and taking out one or two of these 

 feathers I sent them to the Rev. A. C. Smith, of Yatesbury, with a 

 description of the bird and details of its capture. In return he 

 wrote me the following : — " I sent it on at once to my friend. Pro- 

 fessor Newton. I could not make out the feather at all, and no 

 wonder, for it is a most triumphant fact that Salvin did. Clearly 

 it is an escaped convict, probably from the Zoological Gardens at 

 Clifton or elsewhere; but though not British, it did its very best to 

 acclimatise itself, and become naturalised ; poor thing, it did not 

 succeed, still its efforts must be duly recorded." Professor Newton, 

 on receiving Mr. Smith's letter, wrote back to him thus : — " I did 

 not know the feather, but Salvin almost at once recognized it as 

 being from ' Aramides Cayannensis' and looking at some specimens 

 we saw that it was so. In proof hereof I enclose another feather 



