180 Mr. E. Newton's Ornithological Notes from Mauritius. 



the same rank in a natural arrangement as well-established 

 species. 



XVIII. — Ornithological Notes from Mauritius. By Edward 

 Newton, M.A., C.M.Z.S. No. I. A Visit to Round Island. 



Round Island lies about twenty-five or thirty miles north-east 

 of Mauritius, and is about a mile and a half long by a mile wide. 

 The land rises at once from the sea to about the height of a thou- 

 sand feet, and is consequently very steep. Here the Red-tailed 

 Tropic-bird (Phaeton rubricauda, Bodd.) breeds in very large 

 numbers. They are the tamest birds I ever saw, and do not 

 know what fear is. They never attempt to leave their single 

 egg or nestling at one's approach, but merely stick out their 

 feathers and scream, pecking at one's legs with their beaks. 

 It is the fashion on the island for visitors to remove the old 

 bird from its egg by a slight shove, and then placing the foot 

 gently on its head, to draw out the long tail-feathers. It 

 resents this insult by screaming and snapping, but never tries 

 to escape by flying or shuffling along the ground ; in fact, 

 like all birds which have their legs placed so far behind, they 

 cannot rise ofi" a flat surface, but require a drop of a few feet to 

 give them an impetus. One that had an unusually tight tail I 

 lifted up and held in the air by that appendage, and it flapped 

 in my hand until the feathers gave way, when it flew off", but 

 having left a young one behind, returned almost to my feet in 

 two minutes or so, as if nothing had happened. They do not 

 appear at all particular in the choice of a place to deposit their 

 single egg. They make no nest; but the shelter of an overhang- 

 ing rock, or the protection of the arched roots of the Vacoa (a 

 species oiPandanus), seems preferred. On one occasion I found 

 an old lady asleep on her egg, and she was extremely indignant 

 at being stirred up and having her tail stolen. It is curious that 

 I did not see a single egg without its owner sitting on it, and 

 perhaps one may hence presume that they feed at night. In some 

 places their nests were excessively numerous, their eggs or young 

 occurring every few yards. There were to be found about as marjy 

 young as eggs, some of the former almost as large as their mothers, 

 and nearly able to fly ; but I did not sec a single immature bird 



