124 
Notes 
tongeois and Breton sailors gave the name ‘ Loubine’ to the various 
tropical species of Centropome, such as Ambassis Commersonii. 
Vide Lacepede, vol. ii. 
P. 75. Birds so familiar that one catches them by the hand.— Cf de 
Lespinay, p. 41 : 41 y a aussi une si grande quantite d’oyseaux 
que c’est une choze surprenante et difficille h. croire, car ils ne fuyent 
point; on les tiie h coups de baston.’ M. Froidevaux also quotes the 
unpublished Journal of M. du Tremblay and another Journal du 
Voyage a bord du Navarre. 
P. 75. Bulls and cows brought from Madagascar.—‘Les boeufs 
sauvages n’y sont pas encore en quantite n’y ayant pas plus de 35 
ans que Mr. de la Melleraye venant de Madagascar y laissa les 
premiers.’— Journal du Voyage des grandes Indes , i r e pte. p. 73. 
P. 75. English stocked the island with pigs.—‘ It [Mascarenas] had 
no creature in it, save birds ; till our Capitaine landed some Hogs 
and Goats of both kinds, that by a happy multiplication and encrease, 
the future Passenger might be releeved and blesse the Plantee.’— 
Thos. Herbert, op. cit. p. 351. 
Description of some Birds of the Island of Bourbon. 
P. 76. Flamands.—Perhaps identical with the Oyseaux bleus. 
Porphyrio Madagascariensis. —‘On y trouve des oiseaux appellez 
Flamans , qui excedent la hauteur d’un grand homme.'—Rapport de 
M. de Villers, Gouverneur de Bourbon, 1708. Vide La Roque, op. 
cit. p. 206. Cf. Leguat, Hakl. Ed., vol. ii. Appendix D. 
P. 76. Wild geese.— Sarcidiornis melanotus (?). 
P. 76. River ducks.— Anas Melleri (?). 
P. 77. Bitterns or Grands Gauziers.—Pelicans (?). The frigate-bird. 
P. 77. Water hens, black with large white crest.—Probably a Fulica , 
allied to the extinct F. Newtoni of Mauritius. 
Land Birds and their Names. 
P. 77. Solitaires. Didus , sp. ‘ Solitaire —The name used by the 
French colonists for the Didine bird of Bourbon ’— Dictionary of 
Birds, p. 887. Vide Introduction. 
P. 77. Oyseaux bleus.—Sir Ed. Newton states that he ‘has always 
thought these to have been a species of Notornis or Porphyrio. The 
Hon. Walter Rothschild is of opinion ‘ that as all authorities of the 
period agree in saying the “ Oyseaux bleus ” were flightless, and of 
the same size as the Dodo, it is evident they were a species of 
Notornis or an allied genus.’ Not sufficient bones have been pre¬ 
served to identify this bird clearly. Vide Appendix B. 
P. 77. Pigeons sauvages.—The same authority also considers these 
to be probably one of those allied to Erythroena pulcherrima of 
