Vol. xvi.] 96 



Trinidad Island ; also the great numbers and extreme 

 tameness of the Jackass-Penguins on Dassen Island. He 

 called attention to the habit of the Sacred Ibis of breeding 

 in the midst of a colony of Cape Cormorants, and said that 

 the former bird was reported to live on the food brought 

 by the Cormorants for their young, and was also believed to 

 feed on the intestines of li^ang young Cormorants. This 

 latter statement was partially confirmed by his own observa- 

 tions, for a young bird of the Sacred Ibis on being handled 

 disgorged a mass of entrails. The Sacred Ibis is conse- 

 quently treated as -• vermin " by the owners of the island. 

 He stated that the Gannet breeding on Glorioso was almost 

 entirely a brown bird with white tail, rump, etc., and that 

 if it jjroved to be merely a dark phase of *S'. piscator it was 

 remarkable that the latter should not have been found 

 breeding with it. The dark phase was apparently not an 

 intermediate stage of j^lumage, and the few pairs of white 

 <S'. piscator on Glorioso kejjt entirely to themselves. He drew 

 special attention to the remarkable " breeding-play " on the 

 wing of Fregata aquila ; the extreme tameness of the Dove, 

 Rail, Cuckoo, and Gannet {8ida abhotti) on Assumption 

 Island ; and oilhis abhotti on Aldabra, the latter bird allowing 

 itself to be picked U2) without displaying any sign of 

 alarm. 



Colonel J. W. Yerburt, speaking of the migation 

 of birds, observed : — " I would draw attention to the 

 enormous flocks of Swifts and Swallows which gather 

 at Torcross in S. Devon, on the southerly migration. I 

 arrived at Torcross on August 5th, 1903, and on the next 

 day saw hundreds of Swifts flying over Slapton Ley. These 

 flocks were to be seen daily for probably a fortnight, and 

 after the departure of the Swifts the Swallows came in 

 thousands. Many of these birds roosted in the reeds and 

 were often to be seen perched on the telegraph-wires, while 

 many came in from the sea and dropped exhausted on the 

 shore," 



Colonel Yerbury suggested that this spot was well worth 



