84 GllEEN AND BLUE rATJROTS. [169I. 



white, its Beak is short and strong, it lias a Feather at its 

 Tail a Foot and a half long, from whence it takes its Name 

 heing call'd Straw-Tail. These Birds made a pleasant War 

 npon US, or rather npon our Bonnets ; they often came 

 behind us, and caught 'em off our Heads before we were 

 aware of it : This they did so frequently that we were forc'd 

 to carry Sticks in our hands to defend our selves. We pre- 

 vented them sometimes, when we discover'd them by their 

 shadow before us : we then struck them in the Moment they 

 were about to strike us. We cou'd never find out of wl^.at use 

 the Bonnets were to them, nor what they did with those 

 they took from us. 



I shall speak of the Tag and the Pluto in Maurice Island. 

 There's but one sort of small Birds^ at Rodrirjo, they are not 

 much unlike Canary Birds ; Ave never heard them sing, tho' 

 they are so familiar, that they will place themselves on a 

 Book which you hold in your hand. 



There are abundance of green and blew Parrets,^ they are 



istill very abundant in those regions {Ann. des. Sc. not. ZooL, op. cif., 

 6me serie, xix, art. 3, and 6me serie, ii, art. 4). Another red-tailed 

 species {Phaethon rulricmula) breeds on Round Island, near Mauritius. 



1 Two indigenous species of small birds were collected by Sir E. 

 Newton on llodriguez in 1864. These were described by him as 

 Foiidia favicans and Drymseca rodericava, and specimens of both were 

 brought home by the naturalists of the Transit of Yenus Expedition 

 in 1874. Sir E. Newton identifies Leguat's small birds with Foudia 

 favicans., but notices that they had " a very pleasant song", in contra- 

 diction to his statement that "we never beard them sing". - M. Milne 

 Edwards, however, laying more stress on Leguat's words, is of opinion 

 that his small birds were neither Foudia favicans nor Drymxca rodericana; 

 and that these may have been of more recent introduction. Leguat's 

 canaries, he thinks, have shared the fate of the solitaries and wood- 

 hens— /.e., become extinct. (Cf. P. Z. S., 1865, p. 47 ; Ihix, 1865, pp. 

 147 et seq. ; Phil. Trans., I. c, p. 459 ; Ann. des Sc. nat. Zool. (5), xix, 

 art. 8, and (6). ii, art. 4.) 



2 M. Milne Edwards has shown, in a memoir published some years 

 ago, that there were great parrots at Rodriguez of a species which neither 

 exists there nor in any other part of the globe. These were distinct 

 from Agaporms cana and Palieornis exsnJ, and furnish additional proof 



