82 THE NATUEALIST IN BERMUDA. 



1849, my own chasse amounted to fifteen and a half 

 couple. 



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 gf 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 m their tails." A 

 more perfect description of Scolopax Wilsonii could not be 

 desired. 



Caeolina Ceake Gallinule {Ortygometra GaroUnus). 

 This bird is one of the marvels of American ornithology. 

 WUson states that its history is involved in profound mys- 

 tery, inasmuch that no one knows from whence it comes, or 

 where it goes. He then quotes two instances of the bird 

 being met with at sea, at distances of one hundred and 

 three hundred miles from the American coast, from which 

 he concludes that the great body of those birds must winter 

 in countries beyond the United States, and that Heaven has 

 gifted them, " in common with many others," with instinctive 

 judgment and strength of flight sufficient to seek a more 

 genial abode during the winter season. 



Taking this luminous statement for our guide, let us pro- 

 ceed to inquire into the movements of the Carolina Crake, 

 after its departure from the shores of North America. 



Heavy and sluggish as this bird may appear when dis- 

 turbed in its marshy retreat, there can no doubt that it 

 possesses great powers of wing, and the mere fact of its 

 never failing to visit the Bermudas on its great southern 



