Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 575 
“ Mututa ” by the natives, is very rarely met with on the 
Upper Congo. 
I am, Sirs, 
Yours &c., 
C. E. Hellmayr. 
Zoological Museum, Munich, 
. June 15th, 1911. 
Sirs, —I read with much interest Mr. Bannerman's letter 
from Gran Canaria. When in Gran Canaria in May 
1910, l made a point of studying the bird-life. It was on 
the 14th of the month that I first saw the Teydean Finches 
—two male birds—at Teror, a village situated amongst the 
hills in the east of the island. It was on the mountain side 
where some fruit-trees were growing, and well below where 
there were pines. The Finches were sitting very quietly, 
and they only flew away when 1 approached nearer to get a 
better view of them. 
I notice in Dr. Godman’s f Monograph of the Petrels 9 that 
he says little of the habits of the Petrel Oceanodroma castro. 
I had these birds under my observation for a whole day in 
the Canary seas—the 5th of May, 1910. I first noticed 
them when about 75 miles off Madeira. Sometimes only 
one and sometimes four together were in the wake of the 
vessel ; they were by no means shy, and frequently came 
so close that you could see their eyes. They kept flitting 
athwart the wake of the steamer most of the day; they 
had all the action of the House-Martin (Hirundo urbica) 
and were like magnified forms of it. They never flew 
more than seven feet or so from the surface of the water; 
I never saw them alight on the sea. I never heard them 
making any sound. 
I am, Sirs, 
Yours &c., 
William Serle. 
The Manse, 
Duddingston, Edinburgh, 
June 13th, 1911. 
