The Zoologist — December, 1868. 1475 



die. The boys get sometimes ten shillings for a fine bird from passing 

 strangers. The nest is of grass, neatly built, but rather slightly 

 furnished inside with thistle-down or other soft bedding ; four or five 

 white e#gs ; no song, but a pleasing twitter. 



The St. Helena canary is a good deal in request as a singing bird : 

 the note is very sweet and without the shrillness of the European 

 canary : it is often compared to the song of the linnet. In appearance 

 it differs somewhat both from the canary of South Africa and that of 

 the Canary Islands. I am not naturalist enough to describe the exact 

 points of difference ; but although the general opinion is that canaries 

 were imported here, I know of no record of the fact, and it is yet 

 possible that these birds may be indigenous. Some of the males are 

 nearly all yellow, but the greater number, and all the females, have a 

 large admixture of green and grayish plumage. 



The little aberdevat is the bird you have seen in London, sometimes 

 called " waxbills" and " redbeaks :" they are very small, easily tamed 

 and very gregarious, flying about in small flocks, and feeding chiefly 

 on grass seeds: they are equally common at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and probably brought thence. They are pretty little birds; brown on 

 the back, with red breasts and bills and lively manners (though without 

 song), which make them favourites with those who keep birds as 

 pets. 



The only bird known to be indigenous at St. Helena is the " wire 

 bird:" the local name is taken from its haunt, the "wire-grass," a 

 kind of couch-grass that grows where the fertile parts of the island 

 gradually changes to the barrenness of the outer rocks. This bird is 

 of the plover family, and seems also to have some connexion with the 

 sandpipers. 1 have procured the scientific name, on which you may 

 rely, " Charadrius pecuarins," and there would be no great difficulty 

 in getting a specimen, it is a small insignificant bird, a very swift 

 runner, with the habit of flight, peculiar cry, strange actions to divert 

 attention from its nest, &c, common to the plover tribe. Its eggs are 

 dark coloured, two or three in a small depression in the earth or cow- 

 dung : they are but rarely found, and the bird is not very numerous. 

 It is about the size of a snipe ; legs long and black ; beak three-fourths 

 of an inch, black; tail short; back and upper wing-feathers dark 

 browu or blackish ; breast and belly gray. Nothing very remarkable, 

 if not that it is a peculiar species. I have heard that the same bird is 

 found at Tristan d'Acunha, but cannot refer to any authority. If it be 

 a species peculiar to these two islands the fact is of course very 



