of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. 133 



An English settler on the west coast tells us he believes 

 that a night-bird is not uncommon, the origin of the many 

 extraordinary sounds heard in the forest at night. He says 

 that no native will move in the bush after dark, and that their 

 terror of night-birds is so extreme that they will not even 

 willingly look at them, saying they are demons ! not "canny/' 

 as the Scotch folk have it. He has never seen any of these 

 birds, however; and all naturalists know the wonderful sounds 

 emitted by tree-frogs; so he may be mistaken. 



Leptornis aubryanus, Verr. et Desm. R. Z. 1860, p. 432. 



Anthoch(£ra aubryanus, Gray, Brenchley^'s Voy. pi. vi. 

 p. 364. 



Here again we are indebted to our friend M. Saves, who 

 has kindly presented us with what has long been a desidera- 

 tum to our collection. The bird in question was shot near 

 Noumea, soon after the occurrence of hurricanes that ravaged 

 the country in the early part of the year. These storms 

 seem to have unsettled all the bird population, scattering 

 them from their secure haunts even to the trees in the town. 

 The Pink-headed Dove [Ptilopus greyi) was shot in hun- 

 dreds all round Noumea ; " Notus " [Phcenoi'Mna goliath) 

 and White-throated Pigeons {latUhoenas hypcenochroa) cruised 

 about our garden ; while the scarce, forest-loving. Banded 

 Honey-eater [Glycyphila fasciata) was forced to seek its nec- 

 tar from the lantana bushes growing in the gardens in the 

 tow^n. Unfortunately E. L. L. was compelled to go to Sydney, 

 and L. L., being in charge of the Consulate, could not leave his 

 post to reap this unexpected harvest; so w^e did not get much. 

 The coloration and description of the soft parts in the 

 figure of Leptornis aubryanus are, as we have long suspected, 

 quite wrong. All our inquiries have failed to elicit any thing 

 of a bird with " the sides of the head naked and of a clear 

 reddish colour ;'' and in the plate in the 'Voyage of the 

 Curayoa,' which we have had copied and sent to the forest 

 districts, they are represented of a fine dark crimson. This 

 is utterly wrong ! the bare space about the eye is bright 

 yellow, fading, after drying, into a dirty reddish brown. 

 There appears also to be a yellow ear-tuft ; but our friend's 



