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CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 
“ He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast. 
He-prayeth best, who loveth best 
All things both great and small ; 
For the dear God who loveth us 
He made and loveth all.” 
Mr. J. D. Hague gives an account of the birds of Jarvis 
and some other uninhabited islands in the equatorial Pacific, 
in which it appears that, after all, there are evil-doers even 
among tropical birds. He gives the following facts : — 
“From fifteen to twenty varieties of birds may be distin- 
guished among those frequenting the islands, of which the 
principal are gannets and boobies, frigate birds, tropic 
birds, tern, noddies, petrels, and some game birds, as the 
curlew, snipe, and plover. Of Terns there are several spe- 
cies, the most numerously represented of which is what I be- 
lieve to be the Sterna hirundo. These frequent the island 
twice in the year for the purpose of breeding. They rest on 
the ground, making no nests, but selecting tufts of grass, 
where such may be found, under which to lay their eggs. I 
have seen acres of ground thus thickly covered by these birds, 
whose numbers might be told by millions. Between the 
breeding seasons they diminish considerably in numbers, 
though they never entirely desert the island. They are ex- 
pert fishers and venture far out to sea in quest of prey. The 
noddies (Sterna stolida) are also very numerous. They are 
black birds, somewhat larger than pigeons, with much longer 
wings, and are very simple and stupid. They burrow holes 
in the guano, in which they live and raise their young, gen- 
erally inhabiting that part of the deposit which is shallow- 
est and driest. Their numbers seem to be about the same 
throughout the year. The gannet and booby, two closely 
allied species (of the genus Sula), are represented by two or 
