8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



tance from them without taking wing, I am disposed to 

 think they had recently arrived from the southward. It is 

 seldom this wary bird approaches so closely the haunts of 

 man. I was too much engaged to go after them. 



April 26th. — Observed young Red -birds (Pitytus cardi- 

 nalis) for the first time this season. 



April 2jtk. — Mr. Harford, 56th Regiment, tells me that 

 a few days ago, — i.e., during the present month — one of 

 the whale-boat men, stationed at David's Island, captured 

 a strange bird on the rocks at St. David's Head, which 

 he brought alive to St. George's, and sold to Mr. Tolcher, 

 of the 56th. This bird, Mr. Harford assures me, was a 

 " Least Bittern," precisely similar to the one shot by him 

 in November last, mention of which was made on the 

 23rd of that month. 



June 3rd. — Mr. A. Hinson sent me a very fine specimen 

 of Himantopus nigricollis, the Black-necked Stilt of Audu- 

 bon, which he had shot about an hour previously, in the 

 pond near Warwick Church. This bird had been noticed 

 for some days past wading about that piece of water, 

 and was killed, at my particular request, by Mr. Hinson. 

 This is the first instance on record of its having being 

 met with in Bermuda. It measured thirteen and five- 

 tenths inches in length, by twenty-six and six-tenths in 

 extent. Bill, to the gape, upwards of two inches ; 

 naked portion of the tibia, three inches ; tarsi, four and 

 four-tenths inches. In the markings of the plumage, &c, 

 this curious bird agreed perfectly with Wilson's account, 

 excepting that the darker parts appeared to be of a black- 



