| OCR Text |
Show 1869.] LETTER FROM DR. G. BENNETT. 471 nees between the Brahmapootra and the Dihong say that the full-grown ones are so fierce that it would be impossible to bring them alive to Debrooghur. They are seen in pairs, and sometimes in herds of twenty or more. They are swift of foot and good climbers. W hy Jerdon should have excluded this interesting animal from the Indian fauna is a puzzle to m e ; for it is quite as Himalayan as the Brown Bear and the Musk-deer, both of which are included in his book." The following extracts were read from a letter addressed to the Secretary by Dr. George Bennett, F.Z.S., dated Sydney, June loth, 1869:- "The Government steamer 'Thetis' having been sent to Lord Howe's Island to investigate a case of homicide, among other gentlemen interested in natural history, Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald, of the Surveyor-General's department, obtained leave to visit the island. To this gentleman I am indebted for the following information, more especially for the interesting account of the habits of the 'Wood-hen,' a species of Rail now becoming rapidly extinct, peculiar to Lord Howe's Island. The 'Thetis' left Sydney on the 26th of May, arrived on the 29th, and returned to Sydney on the 7th of June, 1869. The island is situated in lat. 31° 30' S., and long. 159° E. It is sixteen miles in circumference, 6g miles in length, and averages about half a mile in width. The inhabitants are about thirty-five, including children. The produce of the island is maize, onions, potatoes, and bananas; the soil is rich, and the vegetation very luxuriant, among which palms, tree ferns, and the banyan fig are most conspicuous. Pigs and Goats run wild on the island, the former feeding principally upon the fruit of the palms. "Among the birds collected by Mr. Fitzgerald, I recognized specimens of Merula vinitincta, Zosterops strenuus, Chalcophaps chry-sochlora, and Pachycephala gutturalis. The most interesting bird procured, and of which only one was obtained, was the ' Wood-hen.' I recollect that in the year 1836 or 1837 the late Alexander Macleay, then Colonial Secretary of N e w South Wales, had several of these birds alive, which had been brought to him from Lord Howe's Island; and he at that time expressed an intention of sending them to the Linnean and Zoological Societies, but I am not aware whether they ever reached their destination. The White Gallinule, figured in Phillips's ' Voyage to Botany Bay,' and found only in Norfolk and Lord Howe's Islands, is now extinct, as it is not seen at either of those islands. Mr. Fitzgerald, in the account he gave me, says, ' The land birds are not numerous, probably not more than of twelve or thirteen distinct species. I observed:-a little Green Pigeon ; a Blackbird, having leaf-tossing habits and call-notes of that class of birds; a Zosterops, or Silver-eye (of larger size than the species common about Sydney) ; a Pachycephala, or Thick-head, having the colonial appellation of "Doctor;" a Rhipidura, or Fly-catcher (similar to our Sydney species); a little Acanthiza; and a Pachycephala with black and yellow plumage, seemingly identical with P. gutturalis; a species of Kingfisher; a Crow-Shrike (Strepera |
