336 APPENDIX. 



PARROTS AND SMALL BIRDS. 



The parrots are of three kinds, and in numbers. The largest 

 are larger than a pigeon, and have a tail very long, the head 

 large as well as the beak. They mostly come on the islets which 

 are to the south of the island, where they eat a small black seed, 

 which produces a small shrub whose leaves have the smell of the 

 orange tree, and come to the mainland to drink water. The 

 second species is slightly smaller and more beautiful, because 

 they have their plumage green like the preceding, a little more 

 blue, and above the wings a little red as well as their beak. The 

 third species is small and altogether green, and the beak black. 

 [Of these three species of parrot, the first can, without danger be 

 referred to the Necroimttacus Rodericamis, determined by M. 

 Milne-Edwards from bones sent him by my brother (Sir E. Newton) 

 [see p. 85], and doubtless quite extinct ; the second is unques- 

 tionably Paheornis exsnl, described by myself (see p. 84), which 

 has lingered into our own times ; and the third is the species of 

 Agcqiornis, known still to exist in Rodriguez, and thought by my 

 brother to be A. cana. {His, 1865, p. 149.)^] 



The doves there are in great numbers, but on the mainland 

 very few are seen, because they go to feed on the islets to the 

 south, as well as the parrots, and come to drink likewise on the 

 mainland. A bird is seen which is very like the brown owl, and 

 which eats the little birds and small lizards. They live almost 

 always in'^the trees ; and when they think the weather fine, they 

 utter at night always the same cry. On the other hand, when 

 they find the weather bad they are not heard . 



[This is evidently the Athene murivora of Milne-Edwards.] 



There are plenty of goldfinches, which have a sweet warbling. 

 Some wagtails are to be seen, with some other small birds, which 

 have very sweet notes, but they are ever on the look-out for the 

 birds of prey, which are the owls of which I have before spoken. 



[The goldfinches may well be referred to Foudia Rodericana, 



^ Professor A. Newton, in Pr. Zool. Societi/, I. c. ; also Ih/s, 1872, p. 

 33. Vide i^ost, p. 337. Ann. des Sc. Nat. Zuol., Ser. 5, viii, pp. 145-56. 



