68 



THE OSPREY. 



miles the first five days, and the entire time to first 

 islands of the group was about 33 days The birds 

 of the islands which we have alread) visited have 

 been described by Dr. Baur. Albemarle, the largest 

 island, probably has new species for us, as Dr. Baur's 

 specimens from Albemarle were lost and he visited 

 but small portions of the island. We stopped at 

 Clarion, and here took photographs of Blue-footed 

 and Red-faced Boobys nesting. The Red-faced are 

 in colonies of hundreds, and most of their nests con- 

 tained young, and we secured a few eggs. The birds 



DOIBLK 



(SEE GENERAL XdTES 



did not mind us in the least and it was necessary to 

 push them from the nests to discover the contents. 

 All birds are tame and ammunition often is not 

 needed to secure specimens The islands are rock 

 heaps, all volcanic flows of lava, from the present 

 time to perhaps thousands of years back. One mag- 

 nificent volcano was in action on James Island, one 

 of the group. While anchored about ten miles 

 off lava could be plainly seen rising and falling in 

 the crater, sometimes bubbling up and overflowing 

 — a grand sight at night. On some flows in level 

 places near the sea the lava assumed all sorts of 

 shapes in cooling ; one common one is to twist up 

 like a rope. I have taken numbers of photographs 

 but we have had great difficulties in developing ; 

 during the hot weather the film ■ run ' and they 

 failed to dry properly ; dust also settled on them. 



The vegetation is not what I expected, — dry bushes 

 and trees along the coast, though in the high interiors 

 it is often quite tropical. Mr. Harris and I made a 

 trip to the interior of James Island and found the 

 flora entirely changed in four or five miles. The 

 summit was covered with moss covered trees, and 

 from five to ten species of ferns growing on the moss 

 covered branches. We found a hog trail in which to 

 make our way, otherwise we could not have reached 

 the top : as it was we traveled on our hands and 

 knees part of the time, but we felt amply repaid for 

 our work. The temperature is very low here con- 

 sidering the latitude — from fifty miles above to one 

 hundred miles below the equator . to-day at 6 a. m., 

 it was 68°." 



Mr. Barlow is also the recipient of another and 

 unexpected letter from Mr. Beck, at Tagus Cove, 



Albemarle Island, December 9, 1897, which is, in 

 part, as follows : 



De.ar B.ari.ow: — A British man-of-war steamed in 

 upon us last night in company with a torpedo boat 

 and is anchored within 200 yards of us in the cove, 

 which is an extinct crater with one side open to the 

 sea. They expect to be in San Diego in two weeks, 

 so I take this opportunity to drop you a line. * * * 

 We run across many novel sights. A pleasant occu- 

 pation I have been engaged in lately is iguana catch- 

 ing \\ent out this a. m. and caught several from 



thirty-five to forty five 

 inches long: lots of fun catch- 

 ing hold of a big, black spine- 

 ridged tail, and yanking and 

 jerking till he has to let go 

 all holds and be dropped in- 

 to a sack for taxidermists to 

 wrestle over in the future. 

 We discovered a new (l") 

 species of land iguana on 

 Marlborough Island a few- 

 miles from here, which we 

 visited Monday. Some of 

 the colonies of birds we saw 

 on Hood Island after we left 

 Chatham Island were as ex- 

 tensive nearly as your Faral- 

 lone Murre rookeries — 

 Frigate Birds and Boobys 

 principally. I collected a 

 few Red-billed Tropic Birds' 

 handsome eggs, very similar 

 to well marked eggs of Prai- 

 rie Falcon or Duck Hawk. 

 I also collected sets of tor- 

 toise eggs, very nearly spher- 

 ical, from holes in the 

 ground .\n interesting 

 search it is walking along a tortoise trail and finding 

 them. Have shot the Flamingo in its native mangrove 

 bordered lagoon, and waded in mud to waist to pick 

 it up from shore. The elusive and seal-like Penguins 

 have also been laid low by use of gun and club. 

 They like to sit on the rocks at the edge of the 

 water and sun themselves. Came very near spend- 

 ing a night perched among the leaves and branches 

 of a mangrove swamp. Fortunately the boat after 

 much labor managed to reach us and w-e descended 

 from treetops to it in the gathering darkness. Had 

 to push and pull the mangrove limbs to get out. 

 The gentle and unsuspicious teal has met its death at 

 my hands also, though I usually find it too much 

 work getting far enough away for a good shot. I 

 spent fifteen minutes one morning to get far enough 

 away for a shot at fifteen or twenty. I finally gave 

 it up. They would swim towards me and run along 

 the edge of the lagoon towards me to investigate. 

 Black-bellied Plover is the most wary bird we have 

 met Went to top of crater, interior of which is 

 about two miles across, with a cooled lake of lava 

 inside- -quite a novel sight which very well repaid 

 the terrible climb I had to get there. I have a pho- 

 tograph or two showing lava fields, but you can't 

 appreciate it until you have walked a few yards over 

 it —Hastily, R. H. Beck. 



A BELATED TOWHEE. 



While hunting rabbits on the 25th of last Novem- 

 ber I flushed a Ground Robin from a pile of brush 

 covered with snow. This was rather an unexpected 

 meeting on Thanksgiving day. — Clifford M Case, 

 Hartford, Conn. 



