992 The Zoologist — November, 1867. 



I also noticed from lime to time, but it flew rapidly and was aided by 

 a strong breeze which was blowing, and appears usually to be blowing, 

 over the island. Besides these insects T saw carrion flies upon the 

 rocks, a hunting spider and numerous small carrion beetles in situations 

 to be presently mentioned. 



The lava and cinders in the neighbourhood of South-West Bay are 

 whitened here and there by the dung of sea-birds, but the extra- 

 ordinary scene of the breeding-place of the terns, or wide-awakes, and 

 called " Wide-awake Fair," is a long valley situated about half a mile 

 from the sea in the south-eastern part of the island. The approach 

 to this valley is indicated by an overpowering odour arising from 

 their deposits, which, however, do not accumulate as in some guano 

 islands. Seen from the hill above, this valley looks as though a 

 light fall of snow had partially whitened it, but in no place was there 

 any appreciable depth of deposit. The birds themselves are in im- 

 mense numbers, hovering over the valley, screaming and making 

 various discordant noises, which, heard at a distance, sound like the 

 murmur of a vast crowd. They are elegant and graceful birds, glossy 

 black above and snowy white beneath, with white foreheads, straight 

 compressed beaks and long forked tails : they measured two feet six 

 inches from tip to lip of the wings, which are long and pointed. As 

 soon as a visitor makes his appearance among the nests, numberless 

 birds arise screaming in the air, and form a complete canopy over his 

 head ; some, bolder than the rest, fly so close that it is the easiest 

 thing in the world to knock them down with a stick, and it is even 

 necessary to strike at them occasionally and give them a slight tap to 

 admonish them not to use their bills against one's face. Meantime 

 crowds of little ones, of all ages and sizes, some covered with a gray 

 down and others almost fully fledged, run hither and thither, tumbling 

 over the stones in their hurry to escape from the intruder. Here a 

 chick has but just broken the egg, and the parent bird is nestling over 

 it, and does not leave it until you arrive so close that you could stretch 

 out your arm and take it up. Eggs lay scattered all over the place, 

 deposited in little hollows in the sand, about as large as the palm of 

 the hand, which is all the nest which the "wide-awake" considers 

 necessary ; and in many of the rocky crevices in which these eggs 

 were deposited the skeleton or half-decayed body of an adult bird, 

 but more frequently a young oue, upon which a number of carrion 

 beetles were busy, showed where it had died and rotted beside the 

 nest. 



