32 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



weathered compact coralline limestone. The vegetation is 

 ilense scrub, with vines and ferns (Plate ix.). Pandanus 

 t rees were about the highest on the island, some quite thirty feet 

 high. The soil is very scanty, and the vegetation most often thickest 

 in slight depression areas where it is more abundant. No water or 

 swampy places were found, drinking water having to be taken 

 (in the various excursions. The island is uninhabited, and has 

 rarely been visited by vessels, but the Pitcairn Islanders 

 occasionally visit it for fishing purposes, since fish are very 

 plentiful there. There are two cocoanut trees on the beach on 

 the north end of the island, planted many years ago by some of 

 the Pitcairn Islanders. 



" Henderson or Elizabeth Island belongs to Great Britain, and 



the British Consul at Tahiti has jurisdiction over it. 



■• Animal life noticed during the short stay was as follows : — 

 One variety of rat, very similar to the Pacific type; one slunk 

 (very plentiful); one small butterfly; one paroquet not very 

 plentiful — only seen on the high part of the island, and generally 

 in pairs) ; one black crake (fairly plentiful in the interior of 

 island, probably lives on tin}' land molusks, which abound in 

 the scanty soil over the high land); one dove, pink-crested, 

 found more or less in flocks of about 20 or more; 'mutton 

 birds ' ( PaQinus, sp. '. ) were very plentiful, and laid their eggs 

 on the ground among the scrub in more or less secluded places 

 ill over the island; white terns were also plentiful; noddies 

 were not so pleutiful ; frigate birds were numerous ; one species 

 of small brown bird with white tail feathers, similar to one at 

 Pitcairn." 



