82 Captain R. Meinertzhagen on 



April 14. On ^fay 7 be fonnd two drakes and three dncks 

 on the same pond ; the drakes were chasing one another and 

 going throngh their peculiar courting performances, with 

 every feather of the tail expanded to the utmost, like a hand 

 with all the fingers spread out. On May 28 they were still in 

 the same place and were probably breeding there. 



162. TNlERors serrator L. Red-breasted Merganser. 



Occasional winter visitor. Wharton shot one in the Gulf 

 of Ajaccio on December 4; Whitehead saw a ^ew pairs on 

 the west coast from November to the end of January, 

 and Backhouse saw one between Ajaccio and the Isles 

 Sanguinaires in January. 



1G3. ^Iergus albellus L. Smew. 



One female shot on Lake Biguglia was brought in the 

 flesh to Jesse. 



[To be continued.] 



III. — On the Birds of Mauritius. 

 By Captain R. Meinertzhagen, Royal Fusiliers, M.B.O.U,* 



(Text-figure 1.) 



During a twelve months^ stay in IMauritius I had oppor- 

 tunities of visiting all parts of the island and of examining 

 the bird-life. This is of great interest, containing as it 

 does the remnants of a peculiar insular fauna, pelagic 

 wanderers from the South Seas, migrants from the snows 

 of Arctic Europe, and numerous species introduced from 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa. 



Nearly all the indigenous birds are now confined to forest 

 and undeveloped land. None of these fast vanishing species 

 have adapted themselves to sugar-cane fields or human 



* This paper does not include those birds tbat became extinct more 

 than a hundred years ago. 



