THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 23 



lines, as we should be able to catch plenty of fish, but we fished 

 and fished and caught nothing. On informing our skipper, he 

 said we should catch plenty just as the tide turned, which it did 

 at 3 o'clock in the morning. Well, at that hour one of our 

 party was up and hard at it, but with no result. We were then 

 informed that we ought to fish over live coral, consequently we 

 got our small dingy and did so, but with no more success than 

 before, only an occasional one being caught, so we came to the 

 conclusion that they did not bite, and gave up trying to catch 

 them. Our boatman then said we were there at the wrong time 

 of the year. He would not be beaten at our, and also his, want 

 of success. 



During the night we heard what we thought was a rat running 

 about our tent and gnawing at our bread, and one of us put his 

 hand on the intruder accidentally in the dark, and thought it 

 rather hard for a rat, but did not leave his hand long enough 

 there to make quite sure. We soon found out that it was a good- 

 sized strong crab, Ocypoda cerathopthalma, that was making free 

 of our tent and its contents and disturbing our rest. I caught 

 and placed him in an empty tin, but did not mention the fact to 

 the others ; and later on, when we arrived at the Bloomfield 

 River, Mr. Anderson camped there for the night in charge of our 

 luggage, and during the night heard strange sounds proceeding 

 from the pile of goods, and he could not make it out, or sleep 

 while it was going on, and it was a long time before he could 

 ascertain the cause, which turned out to be my crab exercising him- 

 self in the empty tin. A few Torres Strait Pigeons, Carpophaga 

 spilorrhoa, were on this island, but they were not nesting. At 

 daylight in the morning I rambled through the scrub, which was 

 dripping with rain which had fallen during the night, and shot 

 three birds for our breakfast. On returning to the camp I hung 

 my wet clothes before the fire to dry, and as the sky was overcast, 

 I sat on a log on the beach skinning birds, and dressed only in 

 my handkerchief for about half an hour, by which time my things 

 were dry ; but during the day I found to my sorrow that the 

 whole of the skin of my body was sunburnt, and in a few days 

 time it all peeled off, and only those who have passed through a 

 similar experience know the pain and discomfort it causes. I 

 only mention this to warn others. 



After spending one day on the island we left at daylight on the 

 following morning for the Pickersgill Reef, about 8 miles off, but the 

 breeze being very light it was midday before we reached it. On 

 passing over some shallow water a turtle was observed, but 

 catching sight of us it rapidly swam away. On the sandbank, 

 which is ioo yards long by 50 wide, were large numbers of 

 Indian Terns, Sterna media. These birds nest here yearly, and 

 we hoped to have found some of their eggs, but we were too 



