THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. I.) OCTOBER, 1877. [No. 10. 
THE BIRDS OF THE BERMUDAS. 
By Lasvr. Reip, R.E., F.Z.S.* 
In March, 1874, when ordered to the Bermudas to complete my 
tour of foreign service, I made diligent and most anxious enquiries 
about the birds likely to be found there, and | must say the 
answers I got from brother officers and others who were familiar 
with the islands were anything but satisfactory in an ornithological 
point of view. | was informed that birds were few and far between, 
with the exception of one or two common resident species, and a 
casual flock of plovers or waders in the autumn months. My 
ardour cooled to zero abruptly. I looked forward to the red, blue, 
black, and white birds of my informants, and the uncertain and 
erratic Plover, with a sigh of despair! Should I take a gun at all, 
to lie idle in the damp corrosive climate to which I was bound? 
However, on board the good ship ‘Severn’—a hired transport, 
which conveyed the company of Royal Engineers, to which I then 
belonged, across the Atlantic—I found some officers of H.M. 53rd 
Regiment returning to Bermuda from leave in England, one of 
whom (Capt. Rooke) was a great sportsman, and had shot and 
collected some birds during his previous residence in the “beautiful 
isle of the sea.” His account was decidedly reassuring. He spoke 
of twenty or more species, and delighted my ears with the magic 
words—* Teal” and “Snipe.” 1 was thankful then that my trusty 
* These notes on the Ornithology of the Bermudas were originally published in 
ten different numbers of ‘ The Field,’ in July, August, and September, 1875. They 
are now reprinted, with corrections and numerous additions by Lieut. H. Denison, 
R.L., F.Z.S., who has kindly assisted the author in revising them. 
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