98 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



this day at Warwick Church Pond. They were both very 

 much alike, sixteen and a quarter inches in length, with 

 beautiful dark chestnut brown heads and necks, and a 

 band of brilliant white plumage round the base of the bill. 

 This band measured six-tenths of an inch in the widest 

 part, being narrower on the upper part; chin also white. 

 The white mirror was not confined to the secondaries, but 

 extended to the primaries, excepting the four or five ex- 

 ternal ones. The upper plumage was of a rich brown, in 

 which the delicate white pencilling of the second plumage, 

 said to be peculiar to the male, was beginning to spread. 

 Lower parts whitish, more or less mottled with brown. 

 Audubon describes this as the markings of the female. 



January nth. — Shot a Snipe in the Governor's Marsh. 

 Tail feathers, fifteen — imperfect. 



Mr. Wedderburn came over from Ireland Island to-day, 

 and informed me that Captain Wingrove, of H.M.'s steam- 

 ship " Scourge " (now laying at the dockyard), captured, 

 with one of his boats yesterday, a female specimen of the 

 Hooded Merganser (Mergus cucullatus), of Audubon. This 

 is a further addition to our fauna. 



January i^th. — Mr. Wedderburn writes me word that a 

 private of his company captured in the muzzle of a cannon 

 inside the Keep, Ireland Island, last night, a beautiful speci- 

 men of the Acadian Night Owl (Ulula acadicd), of Audu- 

 bon, now alive and well. Another addition to our list. 

 He also adds that five Kildeer Plover have been killed by 

 Captain Drummond, 42nd Regiment, at St. George's. 



January iyth.' — Visited the ponds between Hamilton and 

 Harrington Sound in search of Water-fowl. Saw not a 

 single bird. 



