NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 245 



appertaining to these islands — winging their way over the 

 Governor's Marsh in the direction of Prospect Hill. They 

 were very noisy, cawing incessantly. A single Crow of 

 this species, viz., Corvus americanus, has for some time 

 past frequented the marshes in this neighbourhood. 



Being in search of native specimens for a friend in Nova 

 Scotia, I to-day killed a Red-Bird {Pitylus cardinalis), 

 which was singing loudly on the top of a cedar tree. 

 This bird, to my great surprise, was, in plumage, precisely 

 similar to the female, and Wilson's extraordinary statement 

 that the female of this species sings like the male bird 

 immediately occurred to my mind. I was glad, therefore, 

 to have it my power to examine the sex of my newly-shot 

 specimen, convinced that I should find it to be a male bird 

 in immature plumage. In this, however, I was disap- 

 pointed ; for, on dissecting the body, no vestige could I 

 discover of ovarium to guide me to a conclusion one way 

 or the other. 



March %th. — Took a long walk with my little boy in 

 the afternoon of yesterday (Sunday), and on the north 

 side of Brackish pond disturbed a small grey bird, which, 

 from the sluggish mode of flight, I took to be wounded. 

 It alighted on the grassy margin of the swamp, and allowed 

 me to approach within a few yards of the spot on which it 

 lay (for it appeared unwilling to make use of its legs and 

 feet). After a second flight I succeeded, with the aid of a 

 sloping bank, in approaching near enough to enable me to 

 knock the bird down with my walking stick. It proved to 

 be a fine specimen of the Grey Phalarope (Lobipes hyper- 

 boreus). Length, eight and six-tenths inches ; bill, black, 

 the base reddish-orange ; front, crown, throat, sides of the 



