332 KEELING ISLAND. [CHAP, xx 



said to occur on several of the small low islands in the Pacific. At 

 Ascension, where there is no land bird, a rail (Porphyrio simplex) was 

 shot near the summit of the mountain, and it was evidently a solitary 

 straggler. At Tristan d'Acunha, where, according to Carmichael, there 

 are only two land birds, there is a coot. From these facts I believe that 

 the waders, after the innumerable web-footed species, are generally 

 the first colonists of small isolated islands. I may add, that whenever 

 I noticed birds, not of oceanic species, very far out at sea, they always 

 belonged to this order; and hence they would naturally become the 

 earliest colonists of any remote point of land. 



Of reptiles I saw only one small lizard. Of insects I took pains to 

 collect every kind. Exclusive of spiders, which were numerous, there 

 were thirteen species.* Of these, one only was a beetle. A small ant 

 swarmed by thousands under the loose dry blocks of coral, and was the 

 only true insect which was abundant. Although the productions of the 

 land are thus scanty, if we look to the waters of the surrounding sea, 

 the number of organic beings is indeed infinite. Chamisso has 

 described f the natural history of a lagoon-island in the Radack Archi- 

 pelago ; and it is remarkable how closely its inhabitants, in number and 

 kind, resemble those of Keeling Island. There is one lizard and two 

 waders, namely, a snipe and curlew. Of plants there are nineteen 

 species, including a fern ; and some of these are the same with those 

 growing here, though on a spot so immensely remote, and in a different 

 ocean. 



The long strips of land, forming the linear islets, have been raised 

 only to that height to which the surf can throw fragments of coral, and 

 the wind heap up calcareous sand. The solid flat of coral rock on the 

 outside, by its breadth, breaks the first violence of the waves, which 

 otherwise, in a day, would sweep away these islets and all their pro- 

 ductions. The ocean and the land seem here struggling for mastery ; 

 although terra firma has obtained a footing, the denizens of the water 

 think their claim at least equally good. In every part one meets hermit 

 crabs of more than one species, J carrying on their backs the shells 

 which they have stolen from the neighbouring beach. Overhead, 

 numerous gannets, frigate-birds, and terns, rest on the trees ; and the 

 wood, from the many nests and from the smell of the atmosphere, 

 might be called a sea-rookery. The gannets, sitting on their rude nests, 

 gaze at one with a stupid yet angry air. The noddies, as their name 



* The thirteen species belong to the following orders : In the Coleoftera, 

 a minute Elater; Orthoptera, a Gryllus and a Blatta; Henriptera, one spe- 

 cies; Homoptera, two; Neuroptera, a Chrysopa; Hymenop tera, two ants; 

 Lepidopiera nocturna, a Diopaea, and a Pterophorus (?) ; Diptera, two 

 species. 



t " Kotzebue's First Voyage," vol. iii., p. 222. 



I The large claws or pincers of some of these crabs are most beautifully 

 adapted, when drawn back, to form an operculum to the shell, nearly as 

 perfect as the proper one originally belonging to the molluscous animal. I 

 was assured, and as far as my observation went I found it so, that certain 

 species of the hermit-crabs always use certain species of shells. 



