9G Mr. H. Seebolim on the 



and an unfinished paper, " Ueber die Vogel der Inselgruppe 

 von Boninsinia," appeared in the ' Memoires presented a 

 l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg par 

 divers Savaus/ 1830, pp. 231-248, which was followed in 

 1833 by some figures and short text in the third part of 

 Kittlitz's " Kupfertafeln zur Naturgeschichte der Vogel." 



For the last sixty years our information respecting the 

 Bonin Islands and its ornithology has been of the most 

 meagre character. In 1854 they were visited by Mr. Stimp- 

 son, who found examples of four species on the islands, which 

 are included in a " Catalogue of Birds collected by the United 

 States North Pacific Surveying and Exploring Expedition, in 

 command of Capt. John Rodgers, United States Navy; with 

 notes and descriptions of new species M (Cassin, Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sc. Philad. 1862, pp. 312-327). 



In 1882 Blakiston and Pryer published a paper on the 

 Birds of Japan in the ' Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 

 Japan ' (vol. x. p. 84), in which a few waifs and strays of orni- 

 thological information respecting the Bonin Islands occur. 



Mr. Hoist writes : — " It seemed to me quite solemn when 

 the ' Suruga Maru ' cast anchor in 25 fathoms of water at 

 Port Lloyd, on Peel Island, one of the central group of the 

 Bonins, between high rocks and lofty gloomy hills, which 

 shelter the harbour almost on every side. The bay has a 

 circumference of more than three miles, and the mountains 

 are covered with small palm trees and other tropical vegeta- 

 tion. The islanders soon made their appearance in sanpans 

 and canoes, and were most of them half-naked Japanese. 



" No bird can be said to be very abundant on Peel Island, 

 but Hypsipetes squamiceps is the most so. It is very good 

 eating, and is said to be very fat in the winter. There are a 

 good many Blue Rock-Thrushes (Monticola solitarius), but I 

 have only found one kind of Warbler, Cettia diphone. I 

 have seen a pair of Buzzards and a Raven, besides some 

 small Sandpipers and a flock of about twenty Gulls. Pigeons 

 are said to be common in winter. There are plenty of a 

 good-sized deer, some weighing as much as 250 lb., and 

 green turtles as large as 400 lb. -, also wild goats, wild boars, 

 wild cats, flying foxes, &c. 



