* * * * * Mr. Hill mentions to me as indigenous _Ardeadæ_, besides such as have come into my hands,—the Great Heron (_Ardea Herodias_), the Great White Heron (_Egretta leuce?_), the American Bittern (_Botaurus minor_), and the Roseate Spoon-bill (_Platalea ajaja_). The first of these was not an unfamiliar visitant in the vicinity of Bluefields, being often seen by myself and others at early dawn on the sea-shore, and at the edges of the mangrove swamps. Once or twice we have known a particular tree on which the bird roosted, and Sam has repeatedly watched both before break of day and after dusk, but could never succeed in obtaining a shot at the bird, so excessive was its vigilance. The second I once saw at a great distance while on the Burnt Savanna River in November, its long white neck towering above the thick reeds; I judged it to be between four and five feet high. At length it flew to a distant tree; the morass precluding the possibility of my gratifying my desire to possess it. This is, I presume, the species alluded to by Mr. Hill in the former part of the following note.—“I must not omit to mention that in Cuba I saw very usually, in the small farms by the sea-side, the large White Egret or _Garzota_ in a state of mansuetude. The Flamingo was not unfrequently its companion in this unrestrained captivity, if we may use this contradictory expression to represent a state where reconcilement to servitude included a full permission to the birds to use their wings in flight. The abundant food obtained from the refuse of the fishermen’s nets on the beach at day-break, supplied them with an early and full meal for the day, and explained the mystery of this willing captivity. In St. Domingo I visited a woodland farm, situated by the side of some fine freshwater ponds, the resort of numerous wild ducks in the season, where the submission to life among the poultry, on the part of one of the _small Egrets_, was the result of association only. What was most remarkable was the determination of this bird always to occupy the centre of the roost, by the side of the patriarchal cock. I stayed purposely till roosting time, to see him shift his place after gaining the roost-tree, until he got his station in the middle of the dormitory.” * * * * * In some seasons the Scarlet Ibis (_Ibis rubra_) is not an uncommon visitant on the shores of Jamaica; but I have not met with it. The present winter, 1846-7, Mr. Hill informs me, has brought it in somewhat numerously. On the same authority, I mention two species of Curlews, the one known as the Black Curlew, which is _Numenius longirostris_, the other called the White Curlew, which may be _N. Hudsonicus_, or perhaps _Ibis alba_. +Fam.+—SCOLOPACIDÆ. (_The Snipes._) LITTLE SANDPIPER.[105] _Pelidna pusilla._