on Birds seen during the Cruise of the “ Valhalla,” R. Y.S. 339


perhaps the commonest, these were breeding and also in flocks.

Callisles, Elainias , Sugar-birds, Ccereba, Dacnis , Humming-birds

of several species, Woodpeckers, Cuckoos, Kingfishers, and

genera and species almost without end cropped up wherever we

went. These were all new to me in a wild state and the

experience was a delightful one.


Of the Humming-birds I was surprised at how com¬

paratively sedentary they were, for although they could and

did fly, and uncommonly fast and well, still they appeared to

me to spend most of their time at rest. Insects appeared to

form the whole of their food as far as I could see. Indeed

there were practically no flowers, their plan of operation being

to fly to the foot of a tree and buzz up the trunk, stopping at

intervals to pick off some insect. They would occasionally stop

at some part for some time feeding eagerly, the body apparently

suspended in the air, the rapid vibration of their wings rendering

them almost invisible. When finished with one trunk they

would fly off and begin at the bottom of another. I watched one

little mite sitting in and making its nest within a yard, it showed

no concern, and I caught one in a butterfly net when buzzing at

a flower.


Here, as elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, we saw

very few Swifts or Swallows, and I am pretty sure I have seen

many more Swifts and Hirundines in one day in England since

my return than we saw during the whole voyage, the possible

exception being the Swifts over the town of Algeciras in Spain.

With the exception of two Vultures, Caihartes aiira and Cathartes

atratus, birds of prey seemed scared, and these Vultures are

pure scavengers.


The Brazilian Caracara is common enough, and a very

striking bird on the wing. A rather sluggish Sparrow-Hawk

was not rare, and at night two kinds of Nightjar were very

abundant. A large Scops Owl was common, and I heard

repeatedly some Owls of the genus Syrnium, but did not see

them. O11 some lagoons a beautiful little Heron, Butorides, was

abundant, as also were Jacanas and a Water-Hen, but we only

saw one true duck, the Brazilian Teal.


We spent some ten days on this interesting island and



