Gough, Kerguelen^ and South Georgia Islands. 435 



eggs they lay." He further told me the following particulars con- 

 cerning them. When alarmed their note is a shrill whistle. They 

 eat the eggs of other birds and also follow the tide down to feed on 

 small animals (probably, from his description, isopod Crustacea), left 

 by the receding waves, but are very careful never to actually go into 

 the salt water, which, he says, is fatal to them, but they are very 

 fond of getting in fresh water and splashing it over them. A num- 

 ber were captured alive, but in taking them off to the schooner, 

 through the surf, most of them got wet and all but two died. These 

 two lived and were brought to this country by Capt. Fuller. Here 

 they improved in health and grew fat. They were kept tied by one 

 leg with a rope yarn and one night they disappeared and no trace 

 of them was ever found. While in captivity, on shipboard, they 

 were fed on hard tack, dry canary seed and the green sprouts of the 

 same after it had been planted and sprung up. They were also 

 givcQ raw meat, when obtainable, and were very fond of it. When 

 given live mice they would quickly kill and eat them.* While in 

 their cage they fought much among themselves. The wild ones run 

 swiftly when pursued, helping themselves with their wings, and 

 endeavor to get under a tussock, or some such place to hide. He 

 says they have a very peculiar habit of always hopping over every 

 obstacle, as a branch or dead stick, instead of going under it as 

 might be expected. This same habit was noticed in those in cap- 

 tivity, which always hopped over their perches, though there was 

 ample room to go beneath. 



He says that in life the eyes are "brown with reddish rim," 

 frontal shield and base of bill "bright scarlet, tip of bill bright 

 yellow, legs and feet yellow, with reddish spots." 



Family, Chionidje. 



3. CMonis minor Hartl. Lesser Sheath-bill, " White Paddy," "Paddy," "Sore- 

 eyed Pigeon." 



CMonis minor Hartlaub, Rev. Zool , 1841, p. 5; id., op. cit., 1842, pi. 2, figs, 2, 2a, 

 2b ; Kidder and Coues, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus , No. 2, p. 1, 1875 ; iid., op. cit., No. 3, 

 p. 7 ; Sharpe, Philos. Trans. Royal Soc, vol. 168, p. 102, 1879; Saunders, op. cit., 

 p. 163; Sclater, Voyage of Challenger, Zool., vol. ii, 2d Mem., p. 113. 



Chionarchus minor Kidder and Coues, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 3, p. 116. 



Two skins and four eggs from Kerguelen Land. 



* As he says there were mice on the island, they were probably used to catching 

 them. 



