268 On rare or little-known Limieolpe. 



every way, and to be lighter on the breast and belly. They 

 come, however, very close." 



" While sitting on the ground arranging the feathers of my 

 bird, and wondering what it could find to eat in such barren 

 spots, I detected some odd-looking excrescences on the blocks 

 of scoria about us ; and a closer examination showed these to 

 be small shells of the genus Succinea. These, together with 

 Coleoptera, form, as I discovered by their stomachs, their 

 chief food." 



Mr. Melliss informs me that they lay three or four eggs of 

 a pale colour (whitish) dotted with black, in the centre of a 

 mass of cow-dung, making no nest, that they remain in the 

 island throughout the year, and frequent open plains ; water 

 seemed no attraction to them. 



They are called " Wire-birds," says Mr. Layard, " from the 

 fact that their legs are long and thin. I suppose they ap- 

 pear absurdly so to the aborigines of the island, who have so 

 few birds to look at." Another observer, however, Mr. Eden 

 Baker, says (Zoologist, 1868, p. 1475), the local name of this 

 species is taken from its haunt, the " wire-grass," a kind of 

 couch grass that grows where the fertile parts of the island 

 gradually change to the barrenness of the outer rocks ; and 

 this view is taken by Mr. Melliss, who says (Ibis, 1870, p. 104), 

 " This bird frequents chiefly the outskirts of the island, and 

 is generally to be seen running about on the hot stony plains, 

 more or less covered with ' wire-grass ' (Cynodon dactylon). 

 It feeds upon beetles and a small animal {Succinea, sp. ?) 

 found adhering to and hiding under the rocks and stones, with 

 which the ground is partly covered. It is rarely, but occa- 

 sionally, seen inland, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in flocks 

 of five or six. It lays in the summer months of December 

 and January, two eggs, in colour grey, with black markings. 

 It is stated, on the pretty good authority of several persons 

 long resident in the island, that this bird makes no nest, but 

 lays its eggs in dry cow-dung on the exposed open ground ; 

 it slightly covers them over, but does not sit upon them*, 



* This must be a mistake. The bird probably only covers its eggs to 

 hide them in its absence, as is the case with Qallinula chloropus, Podieeps 

 minor, and other species. — J. E. H. 



