226 Macgillivray, Along the Great Barrier Reef. [ist'^'Dec 



The great majority are occupied by fully-fledged young birds, 

 most of them just ready to fly. Many have left the nest, and are 

 roosting on the shrubby growth round the old nests. There are 

 very few small young birds, and still fewer eggs. The young 

 are hatched out blind, with pale leaden-coloured skin, and with 

 only an indication of down, distributed in the same way as in the 

 other species, but with a very dark and shorter bill and dark 

 mask, and this, instead of getting lighter as the bird grows older, 

 gets darker, the bill and face of the fully- feathered young being 

 almost black. The down on the nestling is also darker than in 

 the other two kinds, and the fully-feathered young bird is of a 

 dirty-grey general colour, especially on the head, back, breast, 

 and abdomen, which is white in the adult. The bill and mask in 

 the adult is creamy-white, with red border above the eyes and under 

 the chin, and red legs. The legs of the mature young are leaden, 

 with a tinge of pink. We find two adults sitting on small young 

 with the bill and mask as in a mature adult, but with the general 

 feathering of immaturity, leading us to believe that these birds 

 do not attain to their mature plumage until two years at least 

 have elapsed, and that they breed during the stage of immaturity. 

 We cannot make this species leave their nests when sitting upon 

 newly-haiched young. 



On the eastern side of the island, near its centre, we come upon 

 the nesting-place of the Frigate-Bird {Ftegata ariel), where about 

 50 young birds, fully feathered and able, but unwilling, to fly, 

 are congregated. They are all at about the same stage of 

 development, and give the idea that the eggs must have been 

 laid about May or June. Two young birds seem to be about each 

 nest, and the nests consist of flat platforms of sticks and grass, 

 raised from 4 to 6 inches above the general level of the ground 

 where they are not placed on some small ledge of rock or other 

 elevation. They are, of course, at this stage trodden down and 

 liberally covered with excreta, but give one the idea that they 

 were formerly about 8 inches in diameter. The young birds in 

 general colour are remarkably like the lighter-coloured examples 

 of our Wedge-tailed Eagle (Uroaetus). Numbers of Pectoral 

 Rails are running over the island. Brown-winged Terns are 

 nesting in the crevices of the coral rock, and Noddies are in great 

 numbers, but have not yet commenced to nest. Gulls are, as 

 usual, indulging their thieving habits. At the north-western end 

 of the island many burrows of a Petrel are found. We dig out 

 several to a depth of 4 or 5 feet, and find them to contain either 

 one or a pair of birds (Ptiffinus sphenmus). There are no eggs. 

 It seems that the birds are only cleaning out their burrows, 

 and will probably lay in a month's time. 



The crowd of birds overhead all this time, from the smaller 

 noisy Terns to the great silent Frigate-Birds, is indescribable. 

 We regret that we cannot spend more time on the islet. 

 However, we make a careful examination, and, it is hoped, miss 

 very little of any importance, although the islet, small though it 



