Sea- Birds on Land. 213 



a large brown bird as it sat on its nest, and, being anxious to 

 obtain a specimen of the egg, endeavoured to frighten it off by 

 going within a couple of yards and shouting riotously. The bird, 

 however, did not seem to heed me. I then tried stones, but with 

 no better result. Eventually I had to resort to sterner measures, 

 which I forbear to mention, but which proved satisfactory. The 

 nest consisted of a few twigs and pieces of withered grass, placed 

 on the surface of the hard coral. 



The terns, of which there were great numbers, either standing 

 quietly on the ground in flocks or perched singly on the low 

 bushes, had just concluded their breeding labours, and I found 

 a few abandoned eggs. Their nests were similar to those of the 

 gannet above mentioned. Consorting with the terns and gannets 

 were multitudes of white egrets, stalking about unconcernedly in 

 the long dry grass, or perching in a dreamy sort of way on the 

 topmost twigs of the bushes. All these birds, terns, gannets, and 

 egrets, seemed to be quite as much at home when perching on 

 the bushes or standing in the grass as in their usual attitude on 

 the wing. They seemed indeed very loth to fly, and after being 

 rudely disturbed soon settled down again. The beaches of the 

 weather or east side of the island were studded with great 

 flocks of turnstones and curlews, with which were a few oyster- 

 catchers, and soaring high overhead was a great flock of 

 frigate birds. 



At an early hour on the following morning (March 5 th) we 

 were again under way, and steering towards Port Mahe, which 

 lies sixty miles to the southward of Bird Island. The dredge 

 had been laid out from the stern of the ship soon after anchoring, 

 and on hauling it up just before waying, one of the tangles was 

 found to have attached to it a large slab of dead coral, which 

 contained a great variety of forms of life. There were on its 

 surface several detached masses of growing Corals, comprising five 

 or six different species, and an equal number of Polyzoa, besides 

 some Nullipores and Millepores. In the interstices were several 



