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a large brown finch, and a small yellow-breasted finch, a rcd-
capped weaver-bird, and a waxbill (?). Of these I could only
obtain specimens of the small finch and the weaver-bird. The
yellow-breasted finch is gregarious, and mostly frequents the tops
of the cocoa-nut trees and the upper branches of the tall casuarinas,
where it keeps up an incessant melody of song, pleasant to the ear
in the variety and succession of the notes, and somewhat resembling
the song of the canary. In the large casuarina grove, near
the western end of the island, I succeeded, but with much difficulty,
in procuring some male specimens of the weaver-bird {Foudia
Madagascarensis). The females were nesting. I observed one
of the latter flying away from the tree in which its nest was constructed,
and from which I had disturbed it. It differed from the
male in having the red-coloured feathers confined to the head, the
rest of the plumage being of a dull brown. The nest was an
oblong affair, having a lateral opening, and was constructed of a
parasitic plant of creeping habit, which the creoles use for making
a substitute for tea. The nest hung from the extremity of a
casuarina branch which projected horizontally. The male bird
was to be seen perched singly on the summits of the large
casuarinas, where it made its presence known by a peculiar
and characteristic twittering note which it emits about four
times in a minute. It was very wary, and difficult to
approach within a sixty yards’ range, so that it was only
by most caieful stalking that I could succeed in bringoi ngo; down
a specimen. The brown finch was not abundant, and seemed
to confine its range to the plantations of young cocoa-nuts,
where it was continually shifting its perch. The waxbill was
a very small bird, which was to be seen every now and then
flitting in large flocks among the maize plants and low bushes.
I was much surprised to find that the four small birds above
mentioned were so very Avary, as there were no predatory
birds on the island, and it was unlikely that they had ever
been shot at before. Nevertheless, the motion of raising one’s
225
gun at a distance of sixty yards or more was enough to scare
away any of them.
The partridge was identical with that already seen at Eagle
and Darros Islands. The pigeon, which I have included among
the list of the birds, I saw only once. But one of the creoles
living on the island told me that it was an indigenous species,
and was quite distinct from the domestic pigeons which roost
about and restrict their range to the houses and trees about the
settlement.
Although this island has been classed as one of the Amirante
Group, it would be more correct to look upon it as distinct and
apart from the main group, inasmuch as the bank on which it
rests is separated from the Amirante bank by a deep water
channel eleven miles wide. We sounded across this channel, and
obtained no bottom Avith one hundred fathoms of line. Isle des
Roches is, moreover, peculiar in forming part of an atoll, most of
which is submerged, and is covered with from two to five fathoms
of water. The circumscribed patch of deep water in the interior
has a depth of about fifteen fathoms.
During the Aveek subsequent to our departure from Isle des
Roches, Ave anchored successively off the four remaining islets of
the group ; viz., Etoile, Marie-Louise, Des Neufs, and Boudeuse.
They are mere cays, formed of coral and drift sand, and are
uninhabited. Owing to the heavy surf which brcke all round their
shores, we found it unsafe to land.
With our brief visit to the islets just mentioned our survey of
the Amirante Group came to an end. I will, therefore, before
quitting the subject, make a few general remarks on the group as
a whole. The Amirante Group consists altogether of twenty-one
low coral islets, resting (with the exception of Isle des Roches,
Avhich is on a separate bank) on an extensive coral bank, whose
long axis lies in a north-north-east and south-south-Avest direction,
and IS eighty-nine miles in length, with an average breadth of
nineteen miles. It is included between the limits of 4° 5 oi'and
*5