1863.] EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM DR. J. BENNETT. 439 



leeveram, my attention was attracted to a tank next the Dispensary, 

 which, owing to a light shower of rain that had just fallen, literally 

 seemed alive with small fish gambolling and jumping about in the 

 Water. There was nothing new in this ; but my attention was drawn 

 to a number of large birds with a somewhat heavy flight, hovering 

 over the water and seizing with their feet the fish, with which they 

 then made off to some tamarind-trees on the bund of the tank, to 

 devour them at their leisure, I suppose. 



" On a closer examination, I discovered that what I had imagined 

 mere birds were none other than Flying Foxes, the Pteropus edulis. 

 After watching them fishing for some time, I had to leave, owing to 

 the darkness of the evening. I returned to the tank the next evening 

 half an hour earlier, and again witnessed the same occurrence. 



" I then got my assistant, Mr. Watson, to bring his gun and shoot 

 some, so that 1 might satisfy myself as to the identity of these ani- 

 mals. Mr. Watson shot some two or three whilst in the act of 

 seizing their fishy prey, and on examination I found them to be 

 actually Flying Foxes. During a second visit, on the 5th and 6th 

 of June, I observed the same thing occur again. 



" I am not aware of the fishing-propensities of this animal ever 

 having been noticed, for I find no account of them in any work on na- 

 tural history that I have had opportunities of consulting on the sub- 

 ject. This habit of the Flying Fox appearing new to me, I send 

 you this communication, as there may be others who have witnessed 

 the same thing ; and if made known, this would, I am sure, prove of 

 interest to the naturalist. 



" Chingleput, June 12th, 1863." 



The Secretary regretted to have to state that one of the two J)i- 

 dunculi mentioned by him at the last Meeting as having been pur- 

 chased at Sydney by Dr. G. Bennett for the Society was dead ; but 

 Dr. Bennett had promised to send home the dead specimen, as well 

 as the remaining living bird, at the first suitable opportunity. 



The Secretary also read the following extract from Dr. Bennett's 

 latest letter (dated Sydney, Sept. 19th), respecting the Kagu of New 

 Caledonia (Rhitiochetus Jubatus) : — 



" My young friend Mr. Ferdinand Joubert thus writes to me from 

 ' Kai,' in the interior of New Caledonia, August 2nd, IS63 : — 



" ' I see in the ' Sydney Herald ' your article on the Kagu. I will 

 send you some of the birds as soon as I can procure them, and also 

 some nests and eggs, if pipes and tobacco can induce the natives to 

 bring me some. The Kagus are rather plentiful here, on the side of 

 the "Boh" Mountains, and the natives catch them to eat. Their 

 way of doing this is by making a slipknot on a strong string ; and 

 having discovered a place frequented by these birds, they fasten the 

 string in such a way that the birds when running along pass their 

 heads or legs through the noose and are thereby captured. There 

 are two kinds of Kagus, one very different from the other. The 

 largest Kagu you last received from Dr. Segol is a female of the 



