Birds

Abstract

Our knowledge of the recent Avifauna of the island of Rodriguez has hitherto been confined to a few memoirs published by Mr. Edward Newton, and Professor Alfred Newton of Cambridge. The former has given us an account of a hurried trip of a few days duration made by him in 1864 (Ibis, 1865, pp. 146-154), and it says much for his zealous collecting that the collections now received add very little to his account of the ornithology of the island, and confirm in nearly every instance the correctness of his identifications. Two indigenous species were then discovered by him, both of them proving new to science, and these were described by Professor Newton as Foudia flavicans and Drynueca ? rodericana . More recently he has described a Palæornis from this island as Palæornis exsul (Ibis, 1872, p. 33), and in 1875 a figure of this interesting bird was published (Ibis, 1875, pi. vii.). The naturalists attached to the present expedition did not procure a specimen, but Mr. Henry Slater saw one on one occasion only :—“This was on the 30th of September, “towards the south-western end of the island, where there is a good deal of wood, “and he could have shot the bird if he had had a gun with him ; but neither of his "companions was favoured with a sight of this expiring species, and no further “information about it could be obtained from the Creoles.” (Newton, Ibis, 1875, p. 343.) Of the collections brought home by the naturalists to the Expedition, that of Mr. Slater is the largest, as he procured not only several specimens of the Foudia and Drymceca , but also a number of waders and sea-birds which are found on the island. Mr. Gulliver’s specimens of the two indigenous species were very well preserved, and he also succeeded in obtaining their eggs. Among Mr. Slater’s series were examples of the following introduced species, Psittacula cana , Acridotheres tristis , Francolinus ponticerianus , and Numida coronata .