| OCR Text |
Show 1875.] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON FIJIAN BIRDS. 423 PLATE L. Hapale melanura 3, from a specimen purchased November 9,1874. PLATE LI. Fig. 1. Cervulus micrurus $, from the specimen received May 29, 1875. 2. Young female of Cervulus reevesi, born in the Gardens May 27, 1875, from a sketch taken by Mr. Smit, June 4th. [P.S. O n June 28th the spots were nearly obsolete.] 8. Notes on Fijian Birds. By EDGAR L. LAYARD, F.Z.S.* [Received May 18, 1875.] The following notes on the birds of Fiji are offered to the Society, not as contributing any thing very new, but as the result of one year's residence in the group. Continued and harassing official duties, in the difficult and trying position in which I have been placed, have prevented me from doing more than to devote a moment here and there to ornithology as a relief to the mental strain on me. No one but he who has experienced it can appreciate the relief to turn from official squabbles and the pettinesses, heartburnings, and jealousies of a small community to the tranquil study of Nature. Small and infrequent have been m y chances here; and I am indebted to one of m y servants for the majority of the specimens I have obtained, and for much of the information I have acquired. M y visits round the islands have always been official, and performed in a man-of-war, the routine of which prevents collecting to any extent. Moreover I find that age is creeping on me, and I cannot now scale the hills as I used to do without fatigue; and on Ovalau we have nothing but hills, among which dwell the only birds really worth seeking. The whole country, however, is singularly destitute of birds. M y butler, who was very active, would start before daylight, so as to reach the summit of the island by the earliest dawn, and then descend about eleven or twelve o'clock. He never brought down more than ten birds on any occasion, and assured me he shot all he could. Pigeons may be heard all round, but they are very difficult to see; they are the commonest of all our birds. I have gone up once or twice, and sat at the foot of a tree in full flower or fruit; and in an hour perhaps two or three birds would come to it, chiefly Zosterops! Our seaboard is the same. As I write I look over a waste of waters unbroken by the white wings of the lovely and graceful Terns or snowy Gulls of the Cape, or India, or Europe. No strings of black Cormorants break the brilliant green of the circling reef; the shrill call of the Curlew and the pipe of the Plover are sounds unknown on our shores ! One would have thought that " Amid the green islands of glittering seas " * [See, for previous papers on this subject, " Ornithological Notes from Fiji, with Descriptions of supposed new Species of Birds" (P.Z.S. 1875, p. 27), and " Descriptions of some supposed new Species of Birds from the Fiji Islands " (P. Z. S. 1875, p. 149).-ED.] |
