Chap, xxi.] BIRDS AT BOATSWAIN BIRD ISLAND. 489 



a rope at the .summit, so that it hung down the chff. The cHff 

 surface was covered with guano, hanging everywhere upon it 

 in large projecting masses and stalactite-hke formations. We 

 clambered up the cliff by means of the rope, being half blinded 

 and choked by the guano dust on the way. 



In holes on the sides of the cliff, burrowed in the accumu- 

 lated guano, nest two kinds of Tropic Birds {F/iaethon ccthereus 

 and P. flavirostris). In bracket-like nests, as at St. Paul's 

 Rocks, fixed against the lower parts of the cliffs, breeds a 

 species of Noddy {Anous), and together with these birds, a 

 beautiful snow-white Tern with black eyes {Gygis Candida), 

 called by the seamen the White Noddy, to distinguish it from 

 the Black Noddy. 



The summit of the rock is flat, and the plateau is covered 

 with guano, in hollows on which nest the Booby {Siila leiico- 

 gaster) and a Ciannet {S. piscatrix), and the Frigate Bird {Tachy- 

 petes aqitila). The throat of the Frigate Bird hangs in the 

 form of a sort of pouch in front. This pouch is bare of 

 feathers and coloured of a brilliant vermilion, looking as if 

 rubbed over with some bright red powder. The bird is thus 

 very handsome. 



All the birds allowed themselves to be knocked over with 

 sticks on their nests or when near them on our first reaching 

 the plateau, but they soon became generally alarmed and took 

 to flight. The Frigate Birds were on the look out whenever 

 the Gannets were molested, and snatched the small fish which 

 they disgorged, thus profiting by the general disaster. A single 

 " AVideawake," the name given to the Tern {Siernafuligi/iosa), 

 which breeds in millions gregariously at " Wideawake fair" on 

 the main island, was found on the plateau. The bird was nest- 

 ing all alone amongst the Gannets for some reason or other. 



It was striking to find breeding thus in the middle of the 

 Atlantic, on the top of a steep volcanic rock, the same 

 assemblage of birds which we had seen breeding together on 

 a coral island at sea-level off the north-east coast of Australia. 

 At this latter island, namely Raine Island,* there is a third 

 species of Gannet and no Gygis ; but a Frigate Bird, the same 

 Noddy, the same two Gannets, and the " \Videawake " breed 

 there together as at Ascension, and also one of the species of 

 " Tropic Birds " of Ascension. 



After a halt at Porto Praya, and St. Vincent Cape Verde 

 Islands, the ship was steered for England, but being long 

 delayed by contrary winds, had to put into Vigo for more 

 coals before it reached the Channel, and anchored at Spithead 

 in the evening of May 24th, 1876. 



* See p. 301. 



