6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



About the latter part of last year I saw a beautiful 

 specimen of the Buffet-headed Duck (Fuligula albeola) shot 

 by Captain Lye, 20th Regiment. 



September nth, 1846. — The schooner " G. O. Bigelow " 

 arrived this day from Halifax, N.S. The master, Edwin 

 Jones, informs me that when off the east end of these 

 islands, yesterday, hundreds of flocks of Plover were ob- 

 served passing over the vessel to the southward, and that 

 numerous flocks could be distinctly heard flying in the 

 same direction at night. 



On the lyth and i%th it blew a gale of wind from the 

 S.E., S., and S.W. During the continuance of this tem- 

 pest flocks of the Golden Plover and several kinds of the 

 Plover and Sandpiper family alighted on every part of 

 the Bermuda coast ; even at the dockyard. Guns were 

 immediately in requisition, and the birds persecuted and 

 shot at in every direction. Many of them were killed, 

 particularly the Golden Plover ; the remainder disappeared 

 soon after the gale subsided, and it is only reasonable to 

 suppose that they continued their annual flight to the 

 southward, happy to escape from the inhospitable recep- 

 tion they had met with in these islands. 



October nth, 1846. — Examined a specimen of the Orty- 

 gometra carolinus — Carolina Crake-Gallinule of Audubon, 

 shot by Lieutenant Abbot, 20th Regiment. This bird is 

 one of the marvels of American ornithology. Wilson 

 states that its history is involved in profound mystery, 

 inasmuch that no one knows from whence it comes, or 

 where it goes. He quotes two instances of the bird being 

 met with at sea, at distances of 100 and 300 miles from 

 the American coast, from which he concludes that the 



