334 Letters, Announcements, fyc. 



some days beyond it, and that I should find some materials 

 out of which to concoct an ornithological letter. All the 

 birds I saw, however, were a Yellow Wagtail ( <J ), which stayed 

 with us all one day. It came on board when we were about 

 400 or 500 miles from land; and we carried it another 150 

 miles from home. Another bird was a Swallow, which turned 

 up 250 miles or so from the Azores, and staid about all one 

 day ; next morning we were off Terceira, and it was gone. 

 On the 26th of April I saw several ash-coloured long-winged 

 Shearwaters and some Petrels (black with white rump) ; but 

 they were too far off to make them out. This was about 1200 

 miles from Barbadoes. On the 27th, 900 miles from Barba- 

 does, I saw more Petrels, and a beetle flew round the stern of 

 the ship for some time, but I could not catch it. On the 28th 

 there were more Petrels about. 



" We reached Barbadoes on the 30th ; and we went on shore 

 for an hour or two, and took a drive of a few miles along 

 the eastern shore of the island. I saw more birds than I ex- 

 pected, but, my guns being packed away, I did not get any 

 skins. There were two species of Humming-birds, one doubt- 

 less Orthorhynchus cristatus, the other a Eulampis (I think, 

 E. holosericeus, not E. jugularis) . I also saw a Certhiola. 

 It had no white on the wing, and no yellow on the rump, so 

 far as I could make out*, -t Myiodioctes pusillus was there, 

 and a Dendrceca, I think D. (estiva. A small Quiscalus, with 

 white eyes, hopped about the road, and a little Finch I took 

 to be Loxigilla noctis. I could have spent a few days very 

 profitably even in Barbadoes ; but we had to be on board at 

 4 o' clock, and started for St. Thomas's the same evening. I 

 expect to have a day in Jamaica the day after to-morrow, to 

 reach Colou about the 7th or 8th, and to leave Panama on 

 the 10th. 



* [I have lately obtained a specimen of the Certhiola of Barbadoes, 

 which is C. martinicana. The Quiscalus, which I have likewise received, 

 is Q. fortirostris, Lawr. Pr. Ac. Sc. Phil. 1868, p. 360,— P. L. S.] 



