ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORNITHOLOGY. 
GNATHODON STRIGIROSTRIS. 
Since the publication of our figure and description of Gnathodon 
in Taylor’s Annals, we have anxiously looked for more information 
regarding it. Lieutenant J, Murray of H.M.S. Daphne, who 
visited Nayigator’s Islands in 1849-50, where he procured for us 
some very interesting species, was unable to learn any thing re- 
garding it in Upolu; but Mr. Strickland writes us, that a mission- 
ary lately returned from these islands, informed him that they 
were still kept as pets, and that two were offered to him alive 
shortly before sailing, which he, ignorant of their value declined. 
The results of the United States exploring expedition, where this 
bird was said to be originally described, have also been waited for. 
A single copy without plates, has been obtained by the British 
Museum, from which Mr. @. R. Gray obligingly made the following 
extract; but the work itself we have been unable to procure from 
any London bookseller, though it has been under order for more 
than eight months. No definite answer is given; but the general 
pinion is, that the work for some reason or other has been sup- 
Pressed, in which case being unattainable, the few volumes in cir- 
culation cannot be used as any authority for the species which 
have been described in them as new :— 
“ Female — smaller, more brown; plumage of the head and neck 
legg metallic, but otherwise like the male. 
“ Young — covered with a sepia coloured down; bill yellow, and 
have a remarkably wide gape; the lower mandible being so much 
wider than the upper as to cover it, excepting the hook. 
“ This bird formerly abounded at the Island of Upolu one of the 
Samoan Islands, but now it is considered a rare species by the 
natives, and one which will be entirely destroyed in the course of a 
few years if the same causes exist which are now operating to their 
‘struction, They build their nests and pass most of their time on 
the ground, and flush like Partridges or Grouse with a whirring 
Sound produced by their wings. Their food is mostly fruit, includ- 
ing & species of fig, growing in the mountainous regions which they 
mhabit. The tree called Owa by the natives (Iicus prolixa? of 
motaniste), producing the fig, is represented on our plate with the 
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