BIRDS. 4 1 



3. HiRUNUO CYANOLEUCA. Vieill. 



It is nearly allied to the two latter species, but is readily distinguished from 

 them by the absence of the white rump. I procured specimens in September, 

 both from Valparaiso, and from Bahia Blanca (North Patagonia). At the latter 

 place it built in holes in the same bank of earth with P. purpurea. 



Cypselus unicolor. Jard. 



C. unicolor. Jard. et Selhi/, Illust. Ornith. jil. 8.3. 



I obtained a specimen of this bird from St. Jago, Cape de Verd Islands. 

 (September). 



It more resembled a swallow than a swift in the manner of its flight. I 

 only saw a few of them. Insects occur so scantily over the bare and parched 

 plains of basaltic lava, which compose the lower parts of the island of St. Jago, 

 that it is surprising how these birds are able to find the means of subsistence. 



Family.— HALCYONIDiE. 



Halcyon erythrorhyncha, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837. 



Alcedo Senegalensis var. /j, Lath. 



In January, during the first visit of the Beagle to St. Jago, in the Cape de 

 Verd Islands, these birds were numerous. But in our homeward voyage, in the 

 beginning of September, I did not see a single individual. As Mr. Gould informs 

 me it is an African species ; it is probably only a winter visitant to this archi- 

 pelago. It lives in numbers in the arid valleys in the neighbourhood of Porto 

 Praya, where it may be generally seen perched on the branch of the castor oil plant. 

 I opened the stomachs of several, and found them filled with the wing cases of 

 Orthopterous insects, the constant inhabitants of all sterile countries ; and in the 

 craw of one there was part of a lizard. It is tame and solitary ; its flight is not swift 

 anddirectliketliat of the European kingfisher. In these respects, and especially 



o 



