318 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF 



commonest species which I have noticed are terns, a gull, 

 pelicans, and albatrosses. The latter are very frequently 

 seen hovering over the reef, and seem to find an 

 abundance of favourite food, judging from the frequency 

 with which they descend to the surface of the water. The 

 pelicans breed in great numbers on certain of the quays and 

 shoals. There is a low sand-bank south of the Black 

 Rocks, off Weymouth Bay, where these birds breed in 

 thousands. The bank is so low and so small in extent, 

 that it seems impossible that it is not swept by the waves 

 in bad weather ; yet the birds seem to safely rear their 

 young there and on several similar quays that I know of, 

 some of which do not seem to rise more than one or two 

 feet above high-water. I can only conjecture that the un- 

 erring instinct of the birds guides them better than the 

 human eyes could do, to the safest breeding places. That 

 they do not suffer any material losses is satisfactorily 

 proved by the immense numbers of them that harbour 

 about most of the rocks and dry places of the reef. 

 Fortunately for them, pelicans are not wanted by the 

 human hunter ; they are in use neither as ornaments nor 

 food ; and until some seeker after a new source of wealth 

 finds a market for them, they may hope to inhabit 

 undisturbed the barren sand-banks, which seem to meet 

 all their humble requirements for a dwelling-place. 



