Notes on the Berrmidas. 145 



'Besides the above species it is very probable that several 

 escaped observation. I received a specimen of the Gos-Hawk, 

 Astur palmnbarius, shot near Laprairie at the end of December 

 or beginning of January. It is not unlikely that several species 

 of Hawks occurred here at the beginning of the w^inter, which I 

 did not. observe. An announcement appeared in the Montreal 

 papers at the end of February, to the effect that a yellow bird (or 

 Goldfinch) and a Rossignot (or Song Sparrow) had been lately seen 

 at Cote des Nieges. What reliance is to be placed on this state- 

 ment, I am unable to say. The weather at the time was so mild 

 that it seems not improbable there may be some truth in this and 

 •other reports of the kind, which came to my knowledge. I will 

 conclude these very'rough and hasty notes by expressing the hope, 

 that they may be the means of eliciting further and more valuable 

 information on the birds of this and other parts of Canada, from 

 observers with abler pens than my own, for the '" Naturalist," and 

 should such be the case, any trouble they may have cost me will 

 be most amply repaid. 



W. S. M. D'URBAN. 

 Montreal, 13th May, 185!7. 



ARTICLE XIX. — Notes on the Bermudas and their Natural 

 History, witb special reference to their Marine Algce^, 

 by the Rev. Alex. F. Kemp ; read before the Botanical 

 Society of Montreal. 



The small group of Islands called the ^'Bermudas," or the 

 "" Somers Islands," make up together a " miniature Archipellago," 

 on the western side of the Atlantic Oceanj in lat. 32^ 15' North, 

 and long. 64" 51' West, about 600 miles from Cape Hatteras, in 

 North Carolina. They are alone amidst the waste of waters, as 

 •solitary sentinels at the most northerly outposts of the West Indian 

 group. It is said that they number as many islands as there are 

 days in the year, and perhaps were every little rock which lifts 

 its head above the water and is adorned with a sage bush or a 

 cedar tree to be counted, this might be true ; but there are not 

 more than from twelve to twenty islands which properly deserve 

 to be designated as such. The four principal of these are, the 

 Main Island, or Bermuda proper, which is about 15 miles long. 



