“ Wide-awake’ Fair ” 
one thing, and that manufactured by a man- 
o’-war’s cook another! Defend me from ever 
sampling such a mixture again as the latter ! 
Ascension is also the nesting resort of the 
black-headed tern, or sea-swallow. Imagine a 
piece of fairly level ground—known locally as 
*“Wide-awake Fair ”—measuring 150 yards by 
200, so covered with birds and eggs that it is 
almost impossible to avoid stepping on one or 
the other. The islanders get their egg supplies 
from this spot when the birds are nesting, and 
this is how they manage it. They mark off a 
few square yards with sticks and string, throw 
out all the eggs they can collect in this enclosure 
so that none remain, and on visiting the Fair 
next day find a fresh supply of eggs lying about 
within the enclosure, all of which they know to 
be new-laid. 
The cries of the thousands of birds are be- 
wildering, and a never-ending stream passes 
between the shore and sea, bringing small fish 
in their beaks. How in the world parent birds 
manage to find their young, or the old ones 
their mates, puzzled me. There must have been 
hundreds of thousands of birds on the spot. 
There was any amount of good fishing to be 
had round the island. One day I caught ninety- 
eight cavallhoes, a fish weighing about ten 
pounds. The bait used was a bit of white hand- 
kerchief, tied on to the shank of the hook, the 
69 
