90 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



longitude 70 , he fell in with great numbers of Plover 

 flying to the southward in flocks, many of them three 

 hundred strong; could hear the flocks passing over him 

 during the following night ; and on his return voyage to 

 this port, on the 22nd of September, being then in about 

 the same longitude, he again met numerous flocks of these 

 birds pursuing their flight in the same direction. 



November 2nd, 1848. — Mr. Salton Smith has informed me 

 that a man, named Smith, belonging to the whale boats, 

 captured on Black Rock, during the past summer, one old 

 Cahow and two young ones ; that he took them home with 

 him, where the old bird made its escape, and the young 

 birds both died. 



He also informs me that, on visiting the said rock about 

 a week afterwards (about the middle of August), he found 

 it almost covered with " Redshanks " {Sterna hirundo) and 

 their young ; that the latter have the bills and feet black 

 or brown ; and that the red colour does not appear in those 

 parts for some time. 



I also learn from Mr. Salton Smith that an immense 

 flock of Plover passed over St. David's Island, a short time 

 before the gale of the 15th ultimo. These birds he de- 

 scribes as flying low, and in a due south direction. He 

 thinks there must have been nearly two thousand in the 

 flock. They trailed in long lines from a leading cluster, 

 and appeared to be a hundred yards in extent. Since 

 Mr. Wedderburn shot the two Snipe in December last — 

 mentioned on the 20th of that month — he makes it a 

 practice to count the number of tail feathers in every speci- 

 men of the Snipe which he kills ; and this morning he 

 killed one with seventeen feathers in its tail. I examined 



