4 LETTER FROM MR. W. H. HUDSON. [Jan. 3, 



had doubtless been rejected as being less succulent than the remain- 

 der of his carcass. 



" The Mungoose is at this moment just as brisk and lively as before 

 the encounter, though a fortnight has now elapsed since it took 

 place. 



"It has defied all attempts to examine whether or not it was 

 wounded, and if so to what extent. 



" The serpent was not full-grown, but was of a size quite sufficient 

 for its bite to have caused the death of a man in a few hours." 



Mr. Sclater was well aware that similar experiments to this above 

 recorded had been made more than once, and that similar results had 

 followed, but had never heard any satisfactory explanation given of 

 how it came to pass that the Mungoose was not injured, if it was 

 really bitten by the Serpent. 



A tenth letter on the Ornithology of Buenos Ayres, addressed to 

 the Secretary by Mr. W. H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S., was read : — 



" Buenos Ayree, August 21, 1870. 



"Dear Sir, — People in Buenos Ayres are as familiar with the 

 Gaviota (Lams cirrhocejihahts) as with the domestic poultry about 

 their houses. It is one of the trio of our commonest species, the 

 other two being the Tern and the Chimango. But these two are 

 exclusively land birds, and to make their acquaintance it is also 

 necessary to go a few miles out of a great crowded city. Not so 

 with the Gaviota, whose white graceful form is not more familiar to 

 the gaucho dwelling far off on the inland plains, than to the sailors 

 in every ship that navigates the river Plata, or to the townsman, who 

 may know it well without ever having left the city's pavement. 



" In October these birds congregate in vast numbers in their 

 breeding-places, which are marshes covered with some aquatic plant, 

 usually the loose growing junco. These reeds are much bent and 

 broken down by the Gulls, and are used as material for their nests, 

 which are placed on the water close together. The female lays four 

 oblong eggs, large for the bird, obtusely pointed, of a pale clay- 

 colour, thickly spotted at the large end with dull black. 



" Every morning, at break of day, the Gulls rise up from their 

 nests and hover over the marsh, uttering loud cries and producing 

 a noise that may be heard distinctly two or three miles away. The 

 eggs are excellent eating, resembling those of the Plover in delicacy 

 of flavour, as well as in the lustrous pearl colour which the white 

 assumes when boiled. From the circumstance of such large numbers 

 of Gulls laying their eggs near together, it is a very easy task to get 

 them ; so that when the plains adjacent to their favourite spots become 

 settled, they have but little chance of rearing their young, as the boys 

 in the neighbourhood ride in and gather them every morning. The 

 Gulls, however, are so tenacious of their breeding-places that they 

 continue to resort to them every summer to lay, and only abandon 

 them after several years persecution, or, as often happens, on the 

 marsh drying up. But notwithstanding such quantities of their 



