3760 The Zoologist — November, 1873. 



rapidly, and are now plentiful : they are most impudent birds, 

 possessing the habits of the starling. I have on several occasions 

 seen them feeding together in flocks, and at such times they 

 fight and squabble most vociferously : usually they feed in pairs, 

 or at least they do so at this lime of the year. These birds are 

 dark plumaged, with a large while patch on the wings, yellowish 

 legs and beaks, and bare skin round the eyes. I was offered a 

 nest of young one day by a native : the nest appeared to be loose 

 and composed of dry bents. Ducks are numerous ; I shot several 

 one morning early : they are a trifle larger than our wigeon ; 

 plumage something like female common duck, but the feathers of 

 breast are deeply bordered with cinnamon-red ; the beak is some- 

 what broad and soft. I found them breeding, or should have 

 shot more. 



Inland, among the mountains, there are numbers of wild turkeys, 

 pea-fowl, fowls and Californian quail, the produce of birds that 

 have been turned down. One day I was out I saw an Australian 

 piping crow ; it passed close to me, and there was no mistaking it : 

 I suppose it had escaped or been let loose. In the winter season, 

 I am told, there are many visitors to these islands, such as the 

 " northern duck," — whatever that may be, — and two sorts of 

 plover, probably a golden and gray, similar to those I may have 

 seen on the coast of Peru. 



With reference to Mr. Howard Saunders' notes you enclosed, 

 the blackheaded gull he mentions as being similar to our Larus 

 ridibundus is a much more interesting species when in full plumage, 

 as they were when last I saw them. Their legs were then bright 

 coral-red; beak the same, shaded with black towards the tip; 

 head intensely black, with a broad white ring round the eyes. 



At Callao, in April, I noticed a brown-, or nearly black-, headed 

 gull as large as our common gull, with flesh-coloured legs and 

 orange and black beak, ^ut none were in good plumage, T am 

 sorry to say I skinned but one bird at Callao, and that is an 

 almost black skua, without any long tail-feathers. I was so much 

 occupied with butterflies, I had but little time for birds ; moreover, 

 you cannot imagine what obstacles there are in the way of skinning 

 on board a man-of-war, especially in the tropics, where a bird 

 begins to smell almost as soon as shot. There were at least four 

 or five diff'erent kinds of skuas at Callao, and they were continually 

 harassing the poor gulls. 



