OF THE DIABLOTIN IN DOMINICA. 
31 
people of the island hud distinct remembrances of seeing it, and attributed 
its disappearance to the depredations of the ‘Manacou,’ a marsupial animal 
liko an opossum, which hunted it from its holes and devoured it and its 
eggs. . . . Though hardly accepting the statement by the mountaineers 
that a bird so far-flying could be exterminated by a merely local disturber, 
I was obliged to admit that it no longer inhabited its old homes. For two 
hours we prolonged the search, cold and wet, but found nothing to rew ard 
us. We saw, to be sure, many cracks and crannies in the rocks where 
a diablotin might have hidden, but no long holes, such as those made by the 
‘ Mother Cary’s chickens’ in the Bay of Fundy. There, five years previously, 
I had drawn many a Petrel from the end of a long, winding hole, as it. sat 
quietly upon its single egg; but this other Petrel (for it is a giant petrel, 
probably the Prion caribbeva) was not to bo found, and I departed 
sorrowfully down the mountain to look for shelter 
“ We stayed there all the succeeding day, and renewed our search, though 
unsuccessfully, for the Diablotin .” 
I was naturally extremely desirous of investigating for myself the 
former haunts of the bird in Dominica ; for though I could not 
hope to bo more successful than such an energetic and enthusiastic 
naturalist as Mr. Ober, yet it seemed to me that further details 
Avould bo of interest. Mr. Obor’s book having been written more 
for the general reader than the specialist, it was not to be expected 
that ho would give in it those minute details that are of great 
interest to the ornithologist when the disappearance of a species 
is concerned. 
To visit Dominica in the ordinary fashion would entail my 
staying in that island during the period of a mail service, ten days at 
least, a space of time I could badly spare from my duties. Further, 
communication with the north end of that island is not easy from 
Roseau, the capital. The transport has to be effected by boat, or 
else by an arduous land journey ; supplies would have to be 
carried; and altogether there seemed to be greater difficulties 
involved than the results promised to achieve. My perplexities 
were, however, solved by the arrival of the Training Squadron at 
Barbados, in January, 18S9, under the command of Commodore 
Markham, A.D.C., who, with that interest which he has always 
shown in matters in any way connected with scientific research, 
most kindly offered to take me, after he had visited Trinidad, 
under his care, land me at Prince Rupert’s Bay in Dominica, in 
close propinquity to the well-known former stronghold of the 
Diablotin ; and ho himself offered to make all the arrangements for 
