the loud purr of the Goatsucker (Caprimulgus europæus). On the second night we tried from 12 to 1 without success; it was not quite so cold, but the sky was clear and the moon brighter than ever. Sixty miles to the south-east there is a great colony of the Manx Shearwater, breeding on Skomer, off the coast of Pembrokeshire (Barrington, Zoologist, 1888, p. 367).

The most noisy bird on the island is the Oyster-catcher (Hæmatopus ostralegus), which was continually pursuing us with loud anxious cries, and I am afraid not without some reason. We took one clutch of four eggs, and several clutches of three were brought in to us by the farm-labourers. There must have been a score or two of these birds on the island, frequently half a dozen could be seen on the rocks from one spot. They breed among the rocks on the high part of the island, on the short grass halfway down, and on the shingle by the sea on the low side of the island. A clutch of four fresh eggs of the Peewit (Vanellus vulgaris) was found by one of the labourers, and we frequently heard the cries of the birds.

A pair of Peregrines (Falco peregrinus) breed on the island, and we saw one of them, but we had not time to look for their eyrie. Mr. Ussher picked up some bones of a hedgehog which had probably been eaten by the Peregrines, and remembered having found similar bones on a previous visit. The hedgehogs probably live on the island, which seems to have been part of the mainland after the Glacial Epoch, otherwise it is difficult to account for the great deposit of boulder-clay, which has probably been since washed away by the waves, except where the granite foundation upon which it rests is above the sea-level.

Twice we saw small parties of Sheldrake (Tadorna cornuta) fly across the island. They may breed in some of the rabbitburrows on the island, or in the sand-hills on the opposite coast of the mainland.

We not unfrequently saw Rock Doves (Columba livia) fly out of the caves on the steep side of the island.

The Saltee Islands are visited by many species of Passerine

birds on migration, but very few of them remain to breed. The Skylark has already been mentioned, and both the Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) and the Rock Pipit (Anthus obscurus) were numerous. A few Wheatears (Saxicola ananthe) frequented the rocks at the north-east corner, and we found the empty nest of a Wren (Troglodytes parvulus) on the roof of a cave in which a Shag was breeding. A few Swallows (Hirundo rustica) build in the outhouses belonging to the farm; we saw a solitary pair of Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix), and Jackdaws (Corvus monedula) frequent the cliffs in great numbers. A pair of Pied Wagtails (Motacilla lugubris) frequented the farm-yard, but the almost ubiquitous Sparrow was conspicuous by his absence.

There are many other breeding-places of interesting birds within a short distance of the Saltee Islands. Seven miles to the north-west lie the Keragh Islands, where the Common Tern (Sterna fluviatilis), the Arctic Tern (Sterna macrura), and the Lesser Tern (Sterna minuta) breed in some numbers (Ussher, Zoologist, 1886, p. 369). We saw several small colonies of Herring Gulls on the cliffs of the mainland as we steamed up to Waterford. Mr. Ussher showed me some eggs of the Black Guillemot (Uria grylle) which had been taken this year on the cliffs of the mainland 30 or 40 miles due west of the Saltees. We frequently saw Gannets (Sula bassana) on the wing, but their nearest breeding-ground is more than 150 miles to the west.

The water round the Saltees is as clear as crystal, the birds are ridiculously tame, and though in most places on the steep side of the island the cliffs drop down into deep water, there are many nooks and crannies where you can creep down to so low a level that you are able to watch the habits of the birds with the greatest ease, and see the Guillemots and the other Alcidæ plunge beneath the surface; and on a calm day you can trace their progress under water to a considerable depth, their wings labouring as if it were very hard work flying through such a dense medium. Cormorants use their wings under water in the same way; but Ducks keep their wings close to their bodies, and trust entirely to their feet

On the Foot of the Young of lynx torquilla.

411 to urge them forward. It is worth remembering that in these habits the Divers resemble the Cormorants and the Alcidæ, whilst the Grebes seem to have had diving lessons from the Ducks.

There can be no doubt that the Puffin, and probably its nearest allies, feed their young in the nest until they are able to fly, exactly as the Petrels do, and consequently that my diagnoses of the Ciconiiformes and Galliformes (Seebohm, Classification of Birds, p. ix) are not absolutely diagnostic. The diagnosis of the Order Gallo-Gralla on page 36 is easily altered to exclude the Tubinares and Impennes, but the Alternative Scheme, in the Appendix to the Introduction, must, I think, be given up.

XL.-On the Foot of the Young of Iynx torquilla.
By Dr. A. GÜNTHER.

IN very young Wrynecks (Iynx torquilla), about two days old, in which the yolk has not yet been completely absorbed, I have found a very peculiar modification of the skin covering the heel. The skin of this part is greatly thickened, forming

a. Young Wryneck, about two days old; nat. size.
b. Foot with heel-pad; x 2 nat. size.

a prominent pad, 5 millim. long and half as broad, the surface of which is studded with obtusely conical tubercles, as shown in the accompanying woodcut. These tubercles are the

dermal papillæ which at a later period of the growth of the bird form the small flat scuta of the integument of the heel.

This structure has a distinct function at this early age. In moving about in the nest-hole, particularly when wishing to move to the edge of the cavity, the young bird does not use the toes, but pushes itself forward by means of the rough surface of this heel-pad.

It would be interesting to ascertain whether a similar structure is found in young Woodpeckers of the same age.

XLI.-Notes on Birds from the Papuan Region, with Descriptions of some new Species. By A. B. MEYER, M.D., C.M.Z.S., Director of the Royal Zoological Museum of Dresden.

(Plate XII.)

THE Dresden Museum has recently received, from several sources and from different parts of New Guinea and New Britain, a series of birds, on which I beg leave to offer the following remarks. I do not propose to give a complete list of the species, but only to mention such as present something new as regards their countries, their native names, their plumages, or their specific differences. In their nomenclature I follow Salvadori's standard work on Papuan ornithology as nearly as possible.

1. CYCLOPSITTACUS DIOPHTHALMUS (H. et J.).

Constantine Harbour, N.E. New Guinea, March 1887 (Kubary). Native name "Aul kánger."

Eyes dark brown; bill "black, at the base greyish blue; feet light grey, with greenish shades."

2. CYCLOPSITTACUS EDWARDSI, Oust.

A female; New Guinea, Constantine Harbour or its neighbourhood (Kubary).

Oustalet described the male of this bird in the year 1885 (see Ann. Sc. Nat. 7 sér. vol. xix. art. 3; cf. Salvadori, Orn. Pap. Spl. i. p. 33), but the female has remained unknown, though Mr. Oustalet has recently written to me that he has received examples of this sex.

The female differs from the male chiefly in the absence of the red on breast and abdomen; besides, the feathers on the middle of the crown are tipped with blue, and in front of the black band on the nape there is an olive-coloured one of the same breadth. Oustalet does not describe the olive band in the male, in which the green of the head is separated from the green of the hind neck by the black band only.

Length of wing 0·105 m., of tail 0·056 m., of bill (culmen) 0.020 m., of tarsus 0·011 m.

It would perhaps be advisable to remove C. edwardsi and C. salvadorii to a separate genus, on account of the long curiously shaped plumes of the cheeks and sides of the head, which diverge from the eye as a centre, a character not possessed by the other species of the genus Cyclopsittacus.

3. LORIUS ERYTHROTHORAX, Salvad.

New Guinea, Constantine Harbour or neighbourhood (Kubary).

4. TRICHOGLOSSUS MASSENA, Bp.

Constantine Harbour, New Guinea (Kubary).

5. CALIECHTHRUS LEUCOLOPHUS (Müll.).

Constantine Harbour, New Guinea, May 1887. Native name "Góunkohar, Sakéké" (Kubary).

6. MEROPS PHILIPPINUS, L.

Kurakakaul, north coast of New Britain. Native name "Purupír" (Kubary).

The occurrence of this species in New Britain is very remarkable, as, till now, only Merops ornatus has been recorded from the Papuan region and Australia. The specimen is a young bird, apparently of the first year. I have compared it with a long series from Celebes, the Philippines, Singapore, and other localities, as well as with many young specimens of M. ornatus from Celebes and New Guinea. The bill is very short, only 32 mm. (culmen) long; whereas in a specimen from Makassar, captured by myself in the year 1871, of the same age and in quite similar plumage, it measures 35 mm. (in full-grown specimens up to 43 mm).

SER. VI.-VOL. II.

2 H