256 Mr. J. Walker on the Bird-life of 



It is varied by large beds of a handsome Ipomoea, with pale 

 mauve-coloured convolvulus-like flowers, and with patches of 

 a wild bean {Phaseolus, sp.), very like the familiar scarlet- 

 runner. Very few other plants were to be seen, and a few 

 bushes of an orange-flowered Sida, not exceeding six feet in 

 height, were the only approach to a tree met with in the 

 island, which is a mere sand-bank, in places somewhat mixed 

 with an inferior quality of guano. 



In the sand, especially close to the beach, were numbers 

 of holes like rabbit-burrows on a small scale, which I found 

 were the work of a small dark brown rat [Mus sp. inc.), of 

 which several specimens were secured. These rats were evi- 

 dently nocturnal in their habits, and proved very troublesome 

 to the observing party which remained on shore for the 

 night. I expected to meet with some lizards, but, curiously 

 enough, did not see one, nor a butterfly of any sort. A 

 few carrion and littoral beetles (^Dei'mestes, Saprinus, Tra- 

 chyscelis, &c.), some wasps {Polistes) and grasshoppers, 

 and a few small moths — the widely-distributed Deiopeia 

 pulchella, L., being common — comprised the whole of the 

 insects observed with an exception presently to be noticed. 

 The flies, that universal plague of North-west Australia, 

 were on this occasion pleasantly conspicuous by their 

 absence. 



The sea-fowl formed by far the predominant and the most 

 interesting part of the population of the island. As we 

 approached it in the ship, the number of birds seen was 

 much greater than had ever before been observed by us in 

 this region, and as we were wading across the reef we could 

 see them hovering over the island in a perfect cloud, the air 

 being filled with their harsh cries. The sandy flats, miles in 

 extent, left bare by the receding tide, were covered with 

 large flocks of the handsome dark-mantled Lesser Sooty 

 Tern, Sterna ancestheta (Scop.), which does, not, however, 

 appear to breed on the island, though I have found it nesting 

 abundantly on " Loav Rocks " at the entrance of Admiralty 

 Gulf, farther to the eastward. With them were small 

 numbers of a black Noddy, probably Anous stolidus (Linn.), 



