276 Mr. E. Newton's Ornithological Notes from Mauritius. 
excepting that I have not seen them feeding away from the 
water. The gizzards of two that I examined contained remains 
of mollusks. 
Numenius ph^opus. (Hartl. 1. c. p. 77.) Corbijeu. 
As the tide ebbs, flocks of from five to twenty Whimbrels 
come and feed on the mud. They are very wild—so much so, 
that I only succeeded in getting one specimen. At high water 
they appear to retire inland; and I put some off a piece of turned- 
out cane which had been eaten close by cattle. The bird I 
shot was in very fresh plumage, having apparently but very 
recently moulted—indeed its pen-feathers were not half-grown. 
I saw them at Elat Island in March, and in October I was told 
they had only just made their appearance at Savanne, and that 
they stayed but a short time. However, I found some at Can¬ 
noneer's Point, on the north-west of the island, the last week in 
January or first in February of this year (1861), and I heard of 
one having been killed on the 21st of April, and large flocks 
seen, so that at any rate they must remain here during the 
whole of our summer. 
Totanus-(?). 
On the 27th of September, by the side of the Mer St. Martin, 
I saw a large Sandpiper, about the size of a Greenshank. It was 
very wild, and I could not get within a hundred yards of it. I 
saw it again two or three days after, and with no better success. 
Tringoides hypoleucus (?). (Hartl. /. c. p. 78.) 
The same day that I first saw the last-mentioned species, I 
had a shot at one of two birds, to my mind exactly our Common 
Sandpiper. This was at St. Martin. On the 7th of October, I 
saw one of apparently the same species at Jacote, but I had no 
gun. I have also seen them in the vicinity of Port Louis. 
Phaeton flavirostris. (Hartl. 1. c. p. 86.) Paille-en-queue. 
A few are to be seen about Savanne; but there are hardly 
rocks enough to afford breeding-places for many. I think a good 
number breed in the woods about Curepipe, on the tops of the 
parasitical ferns which grow on the trees : these great bunches 
of fern form one of the most characteristic features of a Mauri- 
