CI 



lap. lu.j 



FRIGATE BIRDS NESTS. 



71 



in height. It is comparatively inaccessible, and owing to 

 its steepness has never been cultivated ; hence it seemed 

 likely to yield a fair sample of the indigenous flora of the 

 group. Most of the plants collected proved, when examined 

 at Kew, to be common Brazilian forms, but a fig tree {Ficiis 

 noronhcc) with pendent aerial roots like the banyan, which 

 grew all over the upper parts of the rock, and which in favour- 

 able spots forms a tree 30 feet in height, proved to be of a 

 new species and peculiar to the island, as far as is yet known.* 

 The only land birds which I saw on the island were the 

 doves, but I saw a nest, probably that of a finch. The prin- 

 cipal bird inhabitants of the island were boobies and noddies 



FRIGATE BIRD. 



TACHYPETES AQUILA. 



of the same species as at St. Paul's Rocks, but far shyer here 

 than there, and boatswain birds and frigate birds {Tachypetes 

 aquila). These latter soared high overhead, looking, with 

 their forked tails, like large kites. 



All these birds nest on the rock. They circled round our 

 heads in vast numbers as we stood on the top of the rock. 

 The frigate birds put their nests here well out of harm's way, 

 on the very verge of a precipice which was quite inaccessible. 

 I could look down and see the nests, five or six of which were 

 built close together, almost touching one another, and each 

 containing a single egg. 



On the low cliffs of Booby Island, the noddies and boobies 

 nest on all the available ledges, and sat on their nests quite 

 undisturbed as we rowed past them. It was curious to see the 



* Ficus iiaronhcp. D. Oliver, F. R. S., '• Icones Plantarum," Vol. III., 

 3rd Scr., p. x8, pi. 1222. 



