86 The Irish Naturalist. April, 



SvijjD.i:. 



Exaouegemiiiifera, var. Scharffi. Odoutosyllis gibba, var. Robertianae, 



McL* McI. 



Xeuosyllis Kiubergi, McL* Syllis coriiuta, Rathke. 

 Sphcerosyllis histrix, Claparede. 



R. Southern. 



TROPICAL TRAVEL. 



Three Voyages of a Naturalist, being an accouut of many little- 

 known Islands in three Oceans, visited by the " Valhalla," R.Y.S. 

 By M. J. Nicoivi,, M.B.O.U., with an introduction by the Rt. Hon. 

 the Ear:, of Crawford, K.T., F.R.S. Pp. xxvi. + 246. With 56 

 plates, 4 sketch maps and text illustrations, London, Witherby & Co. 

 1908. Price 7s. ^d. net. 



This book of scientific travel will appeal to all naturalists, and 

 especially to lovers of birds. The author, Mr. M. J. Nicoll, who now 

 holds a post in the Zoological Gardens at Giza, near Cairo, accompanied 

 Lord Crawford on three voyages of his yacht, the " Valhalla," in order 

 to obtain specimens for the British Museum collections from remote and 

 little-visited regions of the earth. The voyages described are round 

 Africa, to the West Indies, and round the Woild. On the first-named 

 voyage, after visiting St. Paul's Rocks in Mid-Atlantic and Fernando 

 Noronha, the naturalists had the good fortune to observe, about 14 miles 

 off the coast of Brazil, a " Sea-serpent, with a quadrate dorsal fin and a 

 long eel-like neck surmounted by a head shaped somewhat like that of 

 a turtle." The neck was 6 feet long and as thick as a man's thigh I 

 From the aspect of the fin, Mr. Nicoll concludes that the creature was a 

 mammal and not a reptile. The island of South Trinidad, visited by 

 naturalists onl}' on three previous occasions, afforded many interesting 

 birds for study, while near the more familiar Tristan da Cunha were seen 

 specimens of our mysterious Great Shearwater. Dassen Island near 

 Capetown afforded Jackass Penguins and Sacred Ibis. On Aldabra of the 

 Mascarene group. Abbot's Ibis was photographed ; the difficulty was not 

 to avoid frightening the birds but to keep the birds in their inquisitive 

 tameness from upsetting the camera. An observation of much general 

 interest to the student of animal behaviour is that on the same unin- 

 habited island one species of bird may be tame and fearless while an 

 allied species is suspicious and shy. 



In the other two voyages better known islands were visited Martin- 

 ique, Faster, Pitcairn, Tahiti, and Samoa. But in all cases, facts of the 

 natural history of the places are plainly and simply told. The photo- 

 graphs that adorn the volume are always good and frequently 

 beautiful. 



G. H. C. 



