6934 Birds, S^c. 



immediately after, a specimen of Egretta candidissima, to contain 

 precisely the same food, freshwater prawns. 



" Of that very common species, Herodias virescens, I have very 

 little to add to your remarks, except that it perhaps is here unusually 

 abundant, even little splashes in the pastures being tenanted. The 

 tarsi are in proportion much shorter than with any of the above spe- 

 cies, and it always prefers a sedgy, or at any rate grassy, margin. I 

 have never observed it or Egretta caerulea or the great heron [Ardea 

 Herodias) fishing in the open pools of the river-shingle. May we 

 not ask whether the total absence of colour in the snow-white egrets 

 may not better fit them to watch for prey with success in such clear 

 transparent shallows than the darker plumage of the other species ? 

 And there seems another reason why we may conclude it is of some 

 very absolute service to the bird, as it seems very greatly to increase 

 its danger during its motionless occupation. 1 have often been sur- 

 prised at how great a distance they were visible at their posts down 

 the river-margins, a distance at which it would have been extremely 

 difficult to detect the far larger Ardea Herodias. Ardeola exilis 

 is extremely common, but about the jungle of the swamps only; 

 I have never seen it on the Wag Water. 



"W. OsBURN. 

 " To P. H. Gosse, Esq." 



A Sea Serpent in the Bermudas. — I beg to send you the following account of a 

 strange sea-monster captured on these shores, the animal being, in fact, no less than 

 the great sea serpent which was described as having been seen by Captain M'Quhae, 

 of H.M.S. ' Daedalus,' a few years since. Two gentlemen named Trimingham were 

 walking along the shore of Hungary Bay, in Hamilton Island, on Sunday last, about 

 eleven o'clock, when they were attracted by a loud rushing noise in the water, and, on 

 reaching the spot, they found a huge sea-monster, which had thrown itself on the low 

 rocks, and was dying from exhaustion in its efforts to regain the water. They 

 attacked it with large forks which were lying near at hand for gathering in sea-weed, 

 and unfortunately mauled it much, but secured it. This reptile was sixteen feet seven 

 inches in length, tapering from head to tail like a snake, the body being a flattish oval 

 shape, the greatest depth at about a third of its length from the head being eleven 

 inches. The colour was bright and silvery ; the skin destitute of scales, but rough and 

 warty ; the head in shape is not unlike that of a bulldi)g, but it is destitute of teeth ; 

 ihe eyes were large, flat, and extremely brilliant ; it had small pectoral fins and minute 

 ventral fins, and large gills. There were a series of fins running along the back, 

 composed of short, slender rays, united by a transparent membrane, at the interval of 

 something less than an inch from each other. The creature had no bone, but a carti- 

 lage running through the body. Across the body at certain intervals were bands, 



