RELATION DE l'ILE KODEIGUE. 335 



on the eggs of the land tortoises, which they find in the gronnd, 

 which makes them so fat that they often have difficulty in 

 running. They are very good to eat, and their fat is of a 

 yellowish red, -ndiich is excellent for pains. They have small 

 pinions, without feathers, on which account they cannot fly; but, 

 on the other hand, they run very well. Their cry is a continual 

 whistling. AVhen they see any one who pursues them they 

 produce another sort of noise, like that of a person who has the 

 hiccup. 



[From the similarity of coloration we may, I think (says 

 Professor Newton), without much risk of error, identify the bird 

 of which these particulars are given with the Gelinotte of Leguat, 

 Erythromachus Legxuiti of Milne-Edwards, and proved by Sir 

 Edward Newton to belong to the liaUidae — a determination which 

 possibly may explain its unexpected egg-eating propensities.] 



There are not a few Biitors, which are birds which only fly a 

 very little, and run uncommonly well when they are chased. 

 They are of the size of an egret, and something like them. 



[These bitterns are, no doubt, the Ardea megacepliala of M. 

 Milne-Edwards, and the passage is a remarkable corroboration of 

 that naturalist's opinion that the species was brevipennate, 

 though it had not entirely lost the power of flight. (See p. 81.) — 

 A. N.] 



A little bird is found which is not very common, for it is not 

 found on the mainland. One sees it on the islet mi Mat, which is 

 to the south of the main island, and I believe it keeps to that 

 islet on account of the birds of prey which are on the mainland, 

 as also to feed with more facility on the eggs of the fishing birds 

 which feed there, for they feed on nothing else but eggs or some 

 turtles dead of hunger, which they well know how to tear out of 

 their shells. These birds are a little larger than a blackbird, and 

 have white plumage, part of the wings and tail black, the beak 

 yellow as well as the feet, and make a wonderful warbling. I say 

 a warbling, since they have many and altogether different notes. 

 We brought up some with cooked meat, cut up very small, which 

 they eat in preference to seeds. 



[I am at a loss to conjecture what these birds were, unless, 

 possibly, of some form allied to Fregilupus. — A. N.] 



