TAMENESS OF THE BIRDS 111 



tionwas noteworthy. At first thought it would seem 

 to be accounted for by the fact that the island is 

 uninhabited and very seldom visited ; but if this 

 be the reason, one would expect all the birds to 

 be tame, which was not the case. Indeed, a small 

 heron, which proved to be a perfectly new species,* 

 was so wild that, although we saw a great number, 

 I was able to shoot only a single specimen. Also 

 the only small land-bird, a tiny sunbird,| which 

 is found nowhere else, was by no means tame. 

 On Saint Paul's Rocks, as I have mentioned in a 

 previous chapter, one species of noddy tern is 

 quite tame, while the other is extremely shy and 

 wild, though there is probably no island in the 

 world more seldom visited by man. It would seem, 

 then, that tameness and timidity in birds are to a 

 great extent specific traits. 



Unfortunately, rats have been imported by some 

 means into Assumption and are now very abundant. 

 There is little doubt that they devour many eggs 

 of the rail and of other birds which nest near the 

 ground, and should the rats increase to any extent, 

 there is a great danger of these interesting 

 birds becoming extinct in the near future. 

 All the rats which I shot were of a very pale 

 coloration, probably due to the nature of the 

 ground. 



On the open ground near the foot of the sandhill 



* Butorides crawfordi, Nicoll, "Bulletin Brit. Orn. Club," Vol. XVI., 

 p. 105. f Cinnyris dbbotti, Ridgway. 



