16 VOYAGES OF A NATURALIST 



and fearless, but were not nesting at the time of 

 our visit. Their note is a loud rattling " coo." 



Insects were not very numerous — bees, dragon- 

 flies, beetles and crickets being the most notice- 

 able, while a little blue butterfly was frequently 

 seen fluttering along at our feet in the pathways 

 through the groves of fig trees. 



In the houses we collected a number of 

 mosquitoes, apparently of one species only. It 

 seems that it is only in the houses that mosquitoes 

 are troublesome, as, during the whole of the time 

 we were on the island, we were not attacked by 

 these pests out-of-doors, and it was only when we 

 entered a house that they became a nuisance. 



We went to the furthest extremity of the island 

 in a north-west direction from the settlement. 

 Here we found that the low fig trees, which seem 

 to be the principal trees of the island, were growing 

 in greater abundance than near the settlement. 



In these trees numbers of small birds, which 

 in general appearance much resembled reed- 

 warblers, were flitting in and out among the leaves 

 in search of insects. These birds proved to be all 

 of the species called Vireo gracilirostris. Their 

 loud, but by no means unpleasant, song somewhat 

 resembled that of a pied wagtail, so familiar as a 

 British bird. 



This part of the island was steep and precipitous. 

 We followed a path which took us down to the 

 seashore about one hundred feet below, and here 



