NOTES AND QUERIES. 231 



their names from the auctioneer, Mr. Carter, after many failures and some 

 loss of time, discovered in the possession of Mr. Jacobs, the Head-master 

 of the Choir-School in that city, the case and the specimen in question, 

 labelled ' Procellaria bidwerii; which he had bought with others at the 

 Dalton sale. Beyond this fact, however, there was no note or anything to 

 identify the specimen with the object of the search. Mr. Carter thereupon 

 undertook to inquire of the surviving members and connexions of the 

 Dalton family, and, fortunately again, one of the latter, being Mr. George 

 Clarke, of Tanfield House, Bedale, a son-in-law of Captain Dalton, was 

 found, who not only remembered the specimen perfectly well, having seen 

 it 'scores of times,' but produced an old manuscript note he had made on 

 the margin of a 'Bewick' (in which he had been accustomed to record 

 ornithological observations), to the effect that this bird was • found dead on 

 the Bridge at Tanfield,' and had been given to his father-in-law, who had 

 it 'preserved by the late John Stubbs, of Ripon, fishing-tackle maker and 

 bird-stuffer.' Mr. George Clarke also remembered the owner having several 

 times refused the offer of twenty guineas for the specimen, and after his 

 death had looked in vain for the specimen, which, it appears, had been put 

 away in a lumber-room and wholly forgotten. I think, therefore, that no 

 doubt can be entertained of our having before us the remains of the very 

 bird which was found dead at Tanfield, as recorded by Gould, and that we 

 are much indebted to the geutlemen concerned in hunting out this specimen 

 which had so long disappeared." 



[We understand that the specimen which has been thus rescued from 

 oblivion is now in the possession of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, and that he 

 intends to deposit it in the Yorkshire Museum.— Ed.] 



The Birds'-Nest Islands of the Mergui Archipelago. — The 

 remarkable group of islands called by the Burmans " Ye-ei-gnet-thaik " 

 {lit. sea-birds' nests) is located on the south-east side of Domel Island one 

 of the largest of the Mergui Archipelago. It is composed of six marble 

 rocks, the highest and largest of which, 1000 feet in altitude, and about 

 one mile in length, is oval-shaped, and rises very abruptly out of a depth 

 of only five fathoms. The islands present a very striking appearance 

 particularly if the weather is hazy, when they are not seen until within 

 five or six miles, for then they gradually loom out through the mist like 

 some huge misshapen monsters that have strayed away from civilization 

 Their sides are partly clothed with vegetation wherever a break in the lime- 

 stone has left a cleft in which moisture and dust can lodge. Conspicuous 

 because of its leaning attitudes is a species of tree-fern which grows at any 

 angle, but only above a height of 200 feet from the water. The face of the 

 rocks is reddish, partly from weathering and partly from soil, and where 

 cliffs exist the most beautiful though uncouth stalactites have been formed 

 showing grotesque and snake-like patterns varying in hue and shape till 



