from the Ethiopian Region. 295 



can regard without aduiiration the beautiful picture presented 

 by this bird cleaving its way in graceful curves and sweeps over 

 the wild troubled waves of the Atlantic ; but its immense pec- 

 toral muscles and light hollow bones, added to its surface of 

 wing, would amply account for all. 



^38. DiOMEDEA MELANOPHRYS, Tcmm. 



Locality the same as the preceding, but more given to visit- 

 ing the bays and harbours of the coast. It is not at all an un- 

 common sight to see this bird sitting, with a superlatively stupid 

 manner, close to the fishing-boats in False Bay, waiting for bait 

 or refuse to be thrown overboard, when they swim up and 

 devour it. 



-f-39. DiOMEDEA FULIGINOSA, Gmcl. 



The rarest of the Albatroses this cruise, but seen in the same 

 locality as the preceding species. D. chlororhynchus was not 

 observed ; probably it was away in its breeding-grounds. 



40. Stercorarius catarrhactes (Linn.) ? 



Off the Comoro Islands I saw one of these birds ; but, as I did 

 not procure a specimen, I may have been mistaken. 



41. Sterna velox, Riipp. 



In great abundance at Mo9ambic. No other Larida were 

 observed. 



42. Fregata aquilus (Linn.). 



Visited by several of these birds when near the Comoro 

 Islands. Mr. Layard adds, "They breed on Sandy island." 



+ 43. Phaeton rubricauda, Bodd. 

 Several in the jNIojambic channel. 



XXV. — 0)1 the Genus Acredula. By R. B. Sharpe. 

 The object of the present paper is to draw attention to the dif- 

 i'crences between the Bottle-Titmouse of the British Islands and 

 the corresponding form inhabiting Scandinavia, and to adduce 

 facts in favour of their recognition as distinct species. I under- 

 took the investigation of the subject on reading, in my friend 

 Mr. J. Edmund Harting's 'Birds of Middlesex' (p. 51)), that 

 there were in the collection of Mr. John Hancock, and in the 



