Zoological Society. 471 



To the foregoing account some additional details of considerable in- 

 terest may be subjoined. These details, although dated Labuau, July 

 1850, were not received until after Mr. Dillwyn's communication: — • 



Extract from a Letter from Mr. Hugh Low, dated 

 Labuan, 4th of July, 1850. 



" I have been using great exertions to procure for the Earl of 

 Derby a very remarkable GalUnaceous bird, the existence of which I 

 ascertained only three months back ; having no books I am unable 

 to refer to its genus, but it is nearer a Guinea fowl than anything else. 

 I heard from the natives that such a bird existed, and that its eggs 

 were occasionally to be procured. I offered a dollar each for all they 

 would bring me ; and first one was brought, afterwards five, but I 

 could not succeed in hatching either of these imder fowls. The first, 

 after having been set upon for a month, was picked to pieces by its 

 foster-parent, and the chick had apparently but just begun to form. 

 The five eggs were addled. Having learned that the birds abounded 

 on a small island, about a hundred miles along the coast, I hired a 

 boat and five men, and sent them, about fourteen days since, with 

 snares, &c., to endeavour to catch some of the old birds and to seek 

 for the nests, this being the laying season, and to gather plants of 

 Phalcinopsis, which grows ou the same island (Pulo Tigu and Pulo 

 Guya). They returned yesterday, bringing with them 102 eggs and 

 only two birds, both of which had their legs injured by the snares. 

 The sight of the eggs and birds have perfectly astonished me, the 

 body of the former being no larger than that of a bantam, while the egg 

 is as long, though not so broad, as that of a Chinese goose. The men 

 say that on the different islands they visited they found a good many 

 nests, which are placed at a little distance from the sea- shore, in the 

 jungle of small islands, the spot being invariably marked by a large 

 collection of sticks and branches. The eggs are found about three 

 feet deep in the sand, and the men assure me that the bird has no 

 communication with them except by rasping away the sand. The 

 man I employed has lived all his life on small islands, hunting for 

 tortoise-shell, and well knows the habits of the bird ; he says the eggs 

 are hatched entirely by the sun's heat, or rather the heat in the sand. 

 One of the birds he brought died this morning, and I shall put its 

 skin together with some of the eggs in a box, that you may send 

 them to Earl Derby. 1 do not like to take the liberty of writing to 

 his lordship myself, but if I can succeed in getting a lot of young 

 birds, I shall not fail to send them to him by the very first opportu- 

 nity. I have placed some of the eggs under fowls, and some in sand 

 out of doors ; some also in sand in a warm house, where I can regu- 

 late the temperature ; and I have hopes of rearing, or at least of 

 hatching, some of the chicks, if the eggs are still good : but I think 

 that by sending the men again in three months' time with snares I 

 might catch a lot of the young ones hatched naturally, and be able 

 to rear them. The bird is said not to be found on the mainland : 

 the eggs are reported excellent eating. 



