606 Notice respecting Victoria regdlis. 



three or four — the amount of broods), the nature of the place, 

 a sedge-tufted morass, intersected in every direction by tor- 

 tuous muddy channels, covered at high tide, was more favour- 

 able for the collection of specimens than for the purpose I had 

 in view; though, even with the former intent, the gunner 

 would often meet with disappointment, in consequence of his 

 birds falling upon the soft mud, where they could not be 

 picked up, or, in the event of their being obtained, if not killed 

 outright, they would commonly be so much soiled, that it be- 

 came a hopeless task to restore them to their pristine beauty ; 

 for it was remarked, that the species in question, whenever 

 put up, followed all the abrupt windings of the muddy chan- 

 nels whereon it sought its food, deviating from them even less 

 than the T. hypoleucus, which abounded in the same locality : 

 it was decidedly much more timorous than the last-named 

 species, appearing to take wing (generally with a whistling 

 note, its conspicuous white rump at once distinguishing it) at 

 first sight of me; whereas the other, if not suddenly come 

 upon, would trip about and feed quite unconcernedly in my 

 presence, within a dozen yards' distance. During high tide, 

 I flushed a single adult of T. ochropus beside a small pond, 

 adjoining a farm-yard, about a mile and a half inland ; and 

 another upon the muddy shore. Both species were then (the 

 first week in August) most excessively fat, and, consequently, 

 extremely difficult to prepare : they subsisted, for the most 

 part, on minute crustaceans. I know of a beautiful pair of 

 green sandpipers, that were obtained in the London market 

 during the third week of last August; and also of one specimen 

 killed in February. — E. Blyth. Oct. 7. 1837. 



Notice respecting Victoria regdlis. — You are, perhaps, aware, 

 by this time, that the plant which Mr. Schomburgh has named 

 Victoria regina, thinking that he had discovered it, is, beyond 

 all doubt, the same as that which Dr. Poppig found in the 

 river Maranon, and described first in a letter, dated " River 

 Maranon, below Montalegre, end of March, 1832." He 

 named it Euryale amazonica ; and, if the permission of 

 keeping up the other name cannot be obtained from Dr. 

 Poppig, I am afraid it must be withdrawn. The description 

 first published by Dr. Poppig, in No. 757. of V. Froriep's 

 Notizen cms dem Gcb. d. Nat. u. Heilkunde, November, 1832, 

 runs thus : — " Euryale amazonica Poppig. E. aculeatissima, 

 foliis orbiculatis, peltatis, dichotomo-nervosis, supra bullatis, 

 subtus cellulosis. Descriptio : Caulis nullus. Petioli ac pedun- 

 cu ]i i — 2 orgy ales, teretes, diametro 1 — 2 pollicari, uti et 

 reliqua planta, petalis solum exceptis, aculeis innumeris 



