4 VOYAGES OF A NATURALIST 



made excellent bait for the innumerable fishes 

 which swarmed round the rocks ; but as we 

 found later, by accident, the best and freshest 

 bait was to be procured by gently prodding an 

 old gannet while it was sitting on its nest, when 

 it would at once disgorge a fish. 



It was by no means pleasant to walk about 

 amongst these nesting birds, and, indeed, we found 

 it to be a most painful proceeding, as both old and 

 young pecked viciously at our legs. The young 

 birds were especially annoying, and would get out 

 of their nests and follow us, snapping savagely 

 at our legs with their long sharp bills. 



At the base of Booby Hill I came on a colony 

 of noddy terns.* This bird lays its single egg 

 on the bare rock. Most of the eggs were hard set, 

 and there were many young one of various ages. 

 Although very tame, the noddies were not so bold 

 as the boobies, and we did not succeed in catching* 

 more than one adult bird of this species with our 

 hands. 



Running about among the noddies we saw a 

 turnstone,f a well-known visitor in the spring 

 and autumn to the shores of the British Isles. 

 In the winter it is distributed practically over 

 the whole world. This bird has not hitherto been 

 recorded from Saint Paul's Rocks, however, and 

 it was probably resting there while on migration. 



Besides the birds already mentioned, a second 



* Anous atolidtis. ^Strepailas interpret. 



