Chap, v.] PECULIAR LAND BIRDS. IO5 



small finch and a thrush ; no other land birds were seen. The 

 finch {Nesospiza Acunhcc) looks very like a green-finch, and is 

 about the same size. 



The thrush {Nesocichia eremita) looks like a very dark- 

 coloured song thrush, but it is peculiar for its remarkably 

 strong acutely ridged bill. It is peculiar to the Tristan group. 

 It feeds especially on the berries of the little Nertera ; but also 

 is fond of picking the bones of the victims of the predatory 

 gull {Stercorarius atitarctiais). The finch eats the fruit of the 

 Phylica. 



It was here that we first encountered that remarkable 

 lameness and ignorance of danger in birds which has been so 

 constantly noticed by voyagers landing on little frequented 

 islands, and notably by Darwin, who dilates on the fact in his 

 account of the Galapagos Archipelago. 



The thrush and finch hopped unconcernedly within a yard 

 or two of us, whilst stone after stone was hurled at them, and 

 till they were knocked over, and often sat still on a bough to 

 be felled with a walking-stick. By whistling a little as one 

 approached them, numbers could be thus killed, and yet the 

 Germans, with their house close by, had been constantly thus 

 killing the thrushes for eating for two years. The birds are, 

 however, not quite so tame in Tristan Island. 



The finch seems to have become extinct in Tristan da 

 Cunha itself Von Willemoes Suhm was told that the Tristan 

 da Cunha people had tried to introduce the bird into their 

 island.* 



We were in search of another land bird, a kind of Water- 

 Hen {Galli7iula nesiotts), which is found on the higher plateau 

 at Tristan, and is described by the inhabitants as scarcely able 

 to fly. We could not meet with a specimen. Only very few 

 inhabit the low land under the cliffs, and we were not able to 

 land at the only place from which the higher main plateau of 

 the island is to be reached. 



The Germans said that the Inaccessible Island bird is much 

 smaller than G. tiesiotis, and differs from it in having finer legs 

 and a longer beak. This is, however, hardly probable, since 

 the Tristan species occurs at Gough Island. 



* I presume that the Nesosptza Acuhtice of Cabanis, described from old 

 specimens from Bullock's collection, is the Eniberiza Brazilictisis of Car- 

 michael. No second species of finch was seen or heard of by us as 

 existing now in the islands. The genus Nesospisa is peculiar to the 

 Tristan group, but of South American affinity. Crithagta insiilaris, the 

 other finch described by Cabanis as found in the group, is a peculiar 

 species allied to African forms. See P. L. Sclater. " Report on the Birds 

 Collected during the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Challenger.'" "Challenger" 

 Reports. Zoology, vol. ii. Birds, p. 1 10. 



