496 Mr. C. P. Coiiigrave on the Bird-life of 



sailing-boat could well make progress in such a sea as is 

 lashed up ; at any rate, such an experience would be 

 decidedly uncomfortable. 



A few lovely days, with hardly a cloud in the sky, will 

 pass, and then, heralded by a gusty wiud, will burst the 

 gale, which, howling and roaring as it does, makes one feel 

 very contented when the lugger is safely anchored on the 

 lee of an island. 



Rat Island, twenty miles to the north of the first-named, 

 is another great nesting-place for the birds, and this was 

 our objective on leaving the guano station. By midday 

 we were rolling in a big sea alongside Wooded Island, a 

 patch of green and white outlined by great white combers 

 dashing on to the fringing reefs. Running alongside a 

 perpendicular reef in perfect shelter, we went ashore and 

 examined the rookery of the Lesser Noddies. Here some 

 ten acres of mangrove trees were thickly occupied by these 

 pretty little brown birds. Every branch supported dozens 

 of nests, roughly constructed of seaweed. As we go 

 amongst the trees great is the clatter, for the Lesser 

 Noddies believe not in being disturbed, at any rate without 

 objecting. Little downy objects here and there are recog- 

 nised as baby terns, their parents hovering closely to guard 

 their offspring if possible from danger. There is, however, 

 no time for close study when the southerly gale is brewing ; 

 so after a hurried visit, during which the photographers are 

 hard at work, we wander over the banks of dead and bleached 

 coral back to the lugger. Rat Island lies four miles away 

 to the north^ and, with half a gale piping behind, we wallow 

 hither in an angry sea. Once inside the line of reef tiie 

 water is calmer, and by late afternoon we are comfortably 

 ashore. This island was the home of a number of Italian 

 fishermen, who, although our tongues were foreign, gave us 

 a most hospitable welcome. That evening we gathered in 

 their little stone hut, and round a blazing fire passed time 

 pleasantly in broken conversation with these hardy toilers 

 of the sea. During our stay we got quite a picturesque 

 glimpse into the fishing industry. At daybreak a fleet of 



