CORAL ISLES 215 



creamy white or buff ground. Nests were so 

 numerous that one could not walk a dozen yards in 

 the forest without seeing scores. It was roughly 

 estimated that between 30,000 and 40,000 Noddies 

 were nesting on the islet. All through the night we 

 heard the birds calling, and at dawn saw vast flocks 

 leave the. trees and fly out to sea in quest of food; 

 towards evening we watched them return. In all 

 my wanderings I have seen nothing more wonderful 

 than these flights of wild sea birds. 



Brooding Noddies were easily captured; they 

 seemed to have little fear of man. One brave little 

 bird, whose egg I wished to see, pecked my hand when 

 it touched the nest. A bird-lover came to grief when 

 endeavouring to photograph a Tern on its nest. He 

 climbed the tall Pisonia, and ventured too far out on the 

 horizontal limb, which snapped, and down came 

 naturalist, camera and all. Fortunately, no harm 

 was done, except to the tree. Pisonia boughs, ap- 

 parently tough, are soft and sappy, and no great strain 

 is required to break them. 



The sandy soil in the Pisonia forest was honey- 

 combed with burrows of the Wedge-tailed Petrel 

 [Puffinus sphenurus] . The birds came in from the 

 sea at night to renovate the old burrows, preparatory 

 to egg-laying, and many blundered into our tents. 

 One night we were aroused by a cry from the cook. 

 "I've got one," he shouted, and, hurrying to his 

 quarters, we found a Wedge-tailed Petrel had got him. 

 The bird had flown into the tent, and when cook, who 

 was in scanty attire, tried to catch it, fixed its beak 

 in his bare leg. The Wedge-tailed Petrel is more 

 slender than the Short-tailed Petrel or Mutton-Bird 

 [P. brevicaudus], and has light-coloured feet. 



Silver Gulls [Larus novse-hollandite] were nest- 

 ing along the edge of the scrub, close to our tents. 

 One nest was prettily situated beneath a She-oak 

 sapling, whose drooping branches formed a natural 

 umbrella, screening the eggs from the sun. The 



