44 October, 1853 Simon's Town. on trees, were rare. A land tortoise, two frogs, and several lacertans were common, and a variety of species of snakes, among which were the "Cobra" and "puff adder", were found. The most curious snake was the "blind-worm" (Typhlops ?) In the early part of October I paid with Mr Wright, the botanist, a visit to Constantia, a picturesque and beau- tiful collection of farms where the wine bearing the same name is made. I was most interested here in the extensive growths of pines, which had been imported many years since from Europe and planted in rows, and now afford a valuable supply of excellent timber. All the roads here are bordered with them, pre- senting rather the appearance of nar- dry avenues in a private grounds, than that of public highways. On some of the farms I saw oranges and limes ripe on the trees and lying about under them, as apples do in New England. In the interior 45 October, 1853 Simon's Town of the Cape Colony, oranges are said to be so abundant as to be used as food for the Hogs. At Constantia we saw multitudes of the Guineridae or sugar birds, a family characteristic of the Cape. There were several species, some of which had most beautiful plumage of green, blue and red hues, and others had tails three or four times as long as their bodies. I should remark that at the Cape I saw scarce any of the birds since named by Swainson* as characteristic of the Cape Colony — he seems to have mentioned only those species to which he could affix "Sw."! Toward the end of October I visited Cape Town, a large city situated un- der Table Mountain, and 25 miles from Simon's Town. After visiting places of in- terest I went to the public library, where I saw a copy of Dr Smith's Zoology of South Africa. I was however disappointed to find that the figures represented mostly