Io8 INACCESSIBLE ISLAND. 



toms. And yet how strong is the tendency in birds to pre- 

 serve their habits ! I know of no more striking instance of 

 this than the fact that the Apteryx of New Zealand (A. aus- 

 tralis) considers it necessary to put as much of its head as it 

 can under its rudiment of a wing, when it goes to sleep.* 



The pigs cannot get down the cliffs to the rookeries on the 

 north side of the island. 



One penguin at the Falkland Islands {Spkeniscus Magel- 

 lanicus) regularly nests in burrows, sometimes twenty feet long. 

 Another species of the same genus {Sp/ieniscus minor) hxQtds 

 in neat holes burrowed in sandbanks, at New Zealand. t 



On the beach are large banks of seaweed, but, as at Tristan, 

 the heavy surf so batters the weeds, that it is difficult to find a 

 serviceable specimen. An Octo pus is very common amongst 

 the stones, about the edge of the surf. I caught several at- 

 tracted by the washing of the penguins' flesh and skins in the 

 water. A Chiton^ Patella and Buccinum are also common 

 about the shore, as at Tristan. 



All night long the penguins on shore in the rookery kept up 

 an incessant screaming, no doubt lamenting the terrible in- 

 vasion to which they had been subjected. The sound at a 

 distance was not unlike that which one hears from tree-frogs 

 in the south of Europe, " Caa Quark, Caa Quark, Ca Caa Ca 

 Caa." In the morning we moved to Nightingale Island, 

 taking the (Germans with us. 



Nighting^ale Island, Oct. 17th, 1873.— Nightingale Island, 

 the smallest of the Tristan group, lies 2oh miles S.VV. by W. of 

 Tristan Island, and about 22 miles N.W. by W. of Inaccessible 

 Island. The Island is about i a^\jth mile long, by less than one 

 mile broad ; its area is thus not more than one square mile. 

 We steamed up to the north-west side in the morning. 



In the north-east is a rocky peak, from which an elevated 

 ridge runs down to the sea on the east side, whence the Peak 

 is accessible. On the north side it is impracticable, being too 

 precipitous. A lower ridge stretches N.E. and S.W. on the 

 south side of the island, and a broad valley separates the 

 western termination of this ridge from the high ground and 

 peaks on the N.E. ; the highest peak is 1,100 feet in height, 

 and the highest point of the lower ridge, 960 feet. 



The whole of the lower land, and all but the steepest slopes 

 of the high land and its actual summits, are covered with a 

 dense growth of tussock, which occupies also even the ledges 

 and short slopes between the bare perpendicular rocks of the 



* T. H. Potts, " On the Birds of New Zealand," Trans. N. Z. Institute. 

 Vol. v., 1872, p. 186. 



t T. H. Potts, Ibid., Vol. II., 1869, p. 75. 



