may be compared to the red horseshoe on the breast of the English partridge. Its nest is said to be placed on the borders of lakes, although the bird itself is an inhabitant of the parched desert. I was told that the female lays five or six white eggs, spotted with red. I opened the stomachs of many specimens at Maldonado, and found only vegetable matter, which consisted of chopped pieces of a thick rushy grass, and leaves of some plant, mixed with grains of quartz. The contents of the intestine and the dung were of a very bright green colour. At another season of the year, and further south, I found the craw of one full of small seeds and a single ant. Those which I shot were exceedingly fat, and had a strong offensive game odour; but they are said to be very good eating, when cooked. Pointers will stand to them. In the Appendix Mr. Eyton has given an anatomical description of this bird, which partly confirms that affinity both to the Grallatores and Razores, which is so remarkable in its habits and external appearance. CHIONIS ALBÂ. _Forst._ _Shaw’s_ Nat. Miscel. pl. 481. I opened the stomach of a specimen killed at the Falkland Islands, and found in it small shells, chiefly Patellæ, pieces of sea-weed, and several pebbles. The contents of the stomach and body smelt most offensively. Forster remarked this circumstance; but since his time, other observers, namely, Anderson, Quoy, Gaimard, and Lesson (Manuel d’Ornithologie, tom. ii, p. 342) have found that this is not always the case, and they state that they have actually eaten the Chionis. I was not aware of these observations, but independently was much surprised at the extraordinary odour exhaled. We, like other voyagers in the Antarctic seas, were struck at the great distance from land, at which this bird is found in the open ocean. Its feet are not webbed, its flight is not like that of other pelagic birds, and the contents of its stomach, and structure of legs, show that it is a coast-feeder. Does it frequent the floating icebergs of the Antarctic ocean, on which sea-weed and other refuse is sometimes cast? 1. NOTHURA MAJOR. _Wagl._ Nothura major, _Wagl._ Syst. Av. p. sp. 4. Tinamus major, _Spix_, Av. pl. 80.