1 8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



geographical distribution of this bird compels us to suppose 

 that it is confined to the continents of North and South 

 America. Breeding in high Northern latitudes, it migrates in 

 immense numbers to the South ; and that many of these 

 traverse the ocean in their flight is proved by the regularity 

 with which they visit the marshes of Bermuda. 



Many of these birds appear to winter in Jamaica, being 

 found in that island from October to April. Gosse alludes 

 to an instance of twenty-two couple being shot there in one 

 day ; and Dr. Von Tschudi, in speaking of the zoology of the 

 neighbourhood of Valparaiso, says : " The snipes found in 

 the little plain between the bay and the lighthouse, are in 

 colour precisely like those of Europe, from which, however, 

 they differ by having two more feathers in their tails." A 

 more perfect description of Scolopax wilsonii could not be 

 desired. 



January 20th, 1847. — Visited the islands m the Sound, 

 with Dr. Cole and Mr. Adair, of the 20th Regiment, to 

 seek for a Cormorant which for some time past has been 

 observed to haunt those parts. Discovered it sitting upon 

 a small cluster of rocks, and approached near enough to 

 observe that the plumage of the head, neck and back was 

 dark brown (much lighter on the under parts), and the bill 

 yellow or orange about the base and lower mandible. Two 

 shots were fired at it, but without success, and, although we 

 spent three hours visiting nearly all the islands in the Sound, 

 no other bird was met with. 



I take this bird to be the Phalacracorax dilophus, or 

 Double-crested Cormorant of Audubon and De Kay, in its 

 immature plumage. 



January 23^.— Shot a Shrike {Lanius borealis), which 

 measured nine and three-quarter inches in length, and 



