365 
Observations on the Birds of St. Croix. 
reasonable doubt can exist regarding these eggs, as no other 
bird at Zana could possibly have laid them, but we did not take 
any ourselves. They build, probably, on some of the small 
mounds on the north side of the marsh, which stand like islands 
out of the swampy ground. The statement in Mr. Tristram’s 
Sale Catalogue of 1858, describing their eggs as laid on the tops 
of the highest hills, was an idea we entertained at one time 
from a vague description, given by the Arab who brought us 
the first eggs, of the place where he found them. This idea 
we afterwards rejected as resting upon insufficient evidence. 
In fact we left Zana before these birds had begun to sit, and 
consequently were never able to determine the exact localities 
where they bred. These Terns feed over the grass fields and 
open land, hovering and descending, as our more familiar species 
do on the English coast over a shallow, their food being grass¬ 
hoppers and beetles, which there swarm, instead of sand-eels. 
147. IIydrochelidon fissipes. (Black Tern.) 
On one occasion I saw Black Terns skimming over the lake 
of Djendeli. 
148. Cargo cormoranus. (Cormorant.) 
Several Cormorants share with the Ospreys ( Pandion haliaetus) 
the posts set up in the lagoon of El Baheira. 
I regret that I have been able to give so imperfectly the 
Arabic names of the birds in the preceding pages. Much more 
complete information on this point will be found on referring 
to Capt. Loche’s ‘ Catalogue des Mammiferes et des Oiseaux 
observes en Algerie ’, published at Paris, 1 vol. 8vo. 
XXXV.— Observations on the Birds of St. Croix, West Indies, 
made, between February 20 th and August 6th 1857 by Alfred 
Newton, and between March 4 th and September' 28 th 1858 
b]j Edward Newton. (Part IV.) 
[Concluded from p. 264.] 
(Plate XII.) 
foO. [?] - (?) Flamingo. Phcenicopterus -(?). 
Large bands of some species of Flamingo—probably the Ph. 
