33° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fk;. 17. Tropic Bird on Kest. 



tenth' in a most undignilied and 

 precipitate manner, and is strug- 

 gling waist deep in the yielding 

 sand, an unwelcome invader of the 

 home of the shearwater. This ex- 

 perience has the charm of novelty 

 at first, but becomes exasperating 

 after a score of repetitions in the 

 course of an hour, with the perspi- 

 ration streaming down one's face 

 and the sand jmcked inside of one 's 

 shoes and clothing. How many 

 scores or hundreds of thousands of 

 these burrowing Procellaridffi there 

 are on the island it is vain to esti- 

 mate; but there are four or five 

 species, and the entire surface is 



Not only does the bird fauna 

 crowd all the available space on the 

 ground, and in the bushes, and 

 swarm in the air above, but still 

 another vast multitude burrows 

 under the sandy surface, forming 

 a sul)terranean population that in 

 itself would make the island of 

 peculiar interest to the naturalist. 

 jSTor does the human visitor long 

 remain in ignorance of this fact, 

 for he has taken but a few steps 

 anywhere among the bushes before 

 lie suddenly joins the 'submerged 



Fig. 19. ' Sand Gannkt ' with Fgg and 

 You^(;. 



Fig. is. ' Brsn Gan.m;t ' on NHisT. 



fairly undermined by their tunnels 

 and burrowings. Their notes are 

 melancholy beyond expression, be- 

 ing a distressful moaning, some- 

 times reminding one of the less 

 romantic yowling of the night- 

 wandering cat. 



As one walks among the bushes 

 be is from time to time greeted 

 willi most strident and piercing 

 screams from nesting tropic birds, 

 i-arely beautiful creatures, pure 

 satiny white, the wings and tail 

 mainly black, the two central lail 



