THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



appear of a brilliant white colour, partly owing 

 to the dung of the innumerable sea-fowl, and 

 partly to a coating of a hard, glossy substance 

 with a pearly lustre, which is intimately united to 

 the surface of the stone. It seems to be a sort of 

 inflorescence of the phosphate of lime, obtained by 

 the solution of the bird-ordure in the elements, 

 which takes on foliated forms imitative of lichens 

 or nullipores. 



There is not a vestige of vegetable life here, but 

 of animals there are not a few. The booby and 

 the noddy sit on the bare rock in startling tame- 

 ness, apparently having less intellect than the far 

 inferior races around them. "By the side of many 

 of the nests a small flying-fish was placed, which, 

 I suppose, had been brought by the male bird for 

 its partner. It was amusing to watch how 

 quickly a large and active crab, (Grapsus,) which 

 inhabits the crevices of the rock, stole the fish 

 from the side of the nest, as soon as we had dis- 

 turbed the parent birds. Sir W. Symonds, one of 

 the few persons who have landed here, informs me 

 that he saw the crabs dragging even the young 

 birds out of their nests, and devouring them. Not 

 a single plant, not even a lichen, grows on this 

 islet; yet it is inhabited by several insects and 

 spiders. The following list completes, I believe, 

 the terrestrial fauna:— A fly (Olfersia) living on 

 the booby, and a tick which must have come here 

 as a parasite on the birds; a small brown moth, 

 belonging to a genus that feeds on feathers; a 

 beetle, (Quedius,) and a wood-louse from beneath 

 the dung ; and, lastly, numerous spiders, which I 

 suppose prey on these small attendants and scav- 

 engers of the waterfowl. The often-repeated de- 

 scription of the stately palm, and other noble 

 tropical plants, then birds, and lastly man, taking 

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