252 ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CLAREMONT ISLANDS, 



see what it produced in the way of sport or natui'al history. 

 AUenby took his gun, but I contented myself with a butter fly net 

 and a few collecting boxes. As we approached the island we 

 noticed that most of the low bushes were covered with white and 

 blue reef herons, as was also the beach, while feeding upon the 

 reefs, which were then uncovered, were a multitude of shore 

 birds. Some of the latter, as we drew nearer, became suspicious 

 and took wing, and with loud cries moved off to a more distant 

 point along the reef. Among them I recognized the familiar 

 notes of the curlew, whimbrel, grey and golden plover, &c. 

 Directly we landed Allenby went off after the birds on the reef, 

 while I strolled up towards the bushes to look for Lepidoptera, &c. 

 The reef herons were quite tame and permitted me to approach 

 within a short distance before they took wing. While watching 

 them a bevy of quail rose suddenly at my feet and quite startled 

 me with the whirr of their wings as they flew ofi" at an amazing 

 pace for a short distance and then alighted abruptly among 

 the high grass ; and I almost regretted that I had not brought 

 a gun. 



There were many interesting plants growing a little way above 

 high water mark, and some of them were in flower, but most of 

 them, I am sorry to say, were unknown to me^ However, there 

 appeared to be several species of Mesemhryanthemum and 

 Euphorbia, and a plant which was exactly similar to, if not 

 identical with, our English Salsola kali. But the commonest 

 plant was a kind of Convolvulus, with fine pinkish-purple flowers 

 and vigorous stems, which, in some instances, were to be observed 

 creeping over the sand for sixty or eighty feet in a perfectly 

 straight line. It was frequent all over the island, and is a plant 

 which seems to flourish upon all the islands I have visited in the 

 Western Pacific, for I have met with it commonly at Fiji, Tonga, 

 ISamoa, the New Hebrides, &c. It is a favourite food of the 

 larvse of Protoparce distans, a moth which is closely identical to 

 Sphinx convolvuli. 



A leguminous plant, much resembling our familiar garden scarlet 

 runner, was creeping in profusion over the low bushes, and numbers 



