— 110 — 
by the Hon. E. Newton and his brother. I should have liked 
to procure a specimen but the proprietor was unwilling to 
have one shot as this, as well as other indigenous birds in the 
various islands will soon be but memories of the past, as are 
the Dodo, Solitaire, &c., from their constant destruction by 
cats and rats, both of which are in formidable numbers in most 
of the islands. A nest with a young one was brought to us, 
but one of the party requested it might be at once replaced, 
which was immediately done. This neat was roughly and 
loosely made of dried blades of coarse grass outside, but the 
interior was of very fine grass neatly interwoven, interspersed 
with tufts of w r ild cotton. It was about 4 inches in diameter 
within. The young bird had still its pin feathers and was 
very fat. 
“ The plumage of the full grown birds is nearly black with 
a brillant gleam of blue when in the sun, except a white patch 
on the upper wing coverts. I quote a few notes on this bird 
from Mr Newton’s “ Land birds of the Seychelles Archipe- 
lago ” as he studied it particularly whilst there. He describes 
them as bold and familiar, even entering the houses. Their 
food appears to be millepedes, beetles, lizards, &c. They have 
a jerking motion of the tail and sit with the wings drooping 
and tail erect. The bird has a pleasant succession of low soft 
notes heard chiefly morning and evening, The young if taken 
from the nest are rarely if ever reared. A good drawing of 
this bird may be seen in the Ibis for August 18G5. 
“ When huntiug for shells on the shore a coloured man 
evidently a labourer, came up and asked me the names of 
some species he had in his hands and of which he told me 
about their animals. I at once gave him them as they were 
familiar to me One of our party laughed at the Idea of such 
a man wanting to know anything of concholo^y. Now it 
struck me as anything but laughable, this pursuit of knowledge 
under difficulties. I could not help comparing this humble 
aspirant for information, who had well studied the animals and 
their habits, with the numerous shell collectors in Mauritius 
and elsewhere, who load their memory with long scientific 
names, and know nothing of the habits, habitat or forms of the 
architects of the shells. 
