The Zoologist — November, 1867. 983 



At the particular season at which I visited this singular spot, the 

 birds were in every stage of growth, from the newly-hatched chick to 

 the bird with first year's plumage, flying with the rest. Eggs also 

 were abundant, never more than one in the same nest; and although 

 the parent bird was in some cases sitting upon fresh or half-hatched 

 ones, in a great many instances the eggs were cracked, and either 

 rotten or dried up. Many that I picked up felt light and empty, 

 although scarcely injured, and others which I broke contained 

 carrion beetles or their grubs. The eggs were very variously marked, 

 and had not a little variety of form : the common appearance of them 

 was round at one end and pointed at the other, about the size of a 

 plover's egg, and in colour a whitish ground, blotched with faint 

 purplish and distinct rich brown blotches, which often formed a ring 

 round the larger end; but some which I noticed were long and 

 pointed at both ends, and without blotches, but speckled with small 

 purplish and brown spots. There was no other kind of bird, how- 

 ever, visible in the whole valley. 



It would be easy for any person in the valley to fill a sack with 

 adult birds, although he possessed no other weapon than a stick, and 

 loo many of the visitors are not content without maiming a number in 

 mere wantonness ; so that the poor birds can hardly be said to dwell 

 unmolested ; nevertheless, as long at least as they have nests and eggs 

 to look after, they evince what I should characterize as boldness rather 

 than tameness. I should consider the Solan geese on the Bass Rock 

 as tamer than the " wide-awakes " of Ascension. 



Before leaving the island I visited the turtle-ponds, where these 

 animals are kept in store ; for Ascension, barren and desolate as it 

 is, has yet oue product in which it is not exceeded by any part of the 

 world, viz. turtle. The sandy bays of the island are visited by great 

 numbers of these un wieldly and valuable reptiles, which, entirely 

 marine and oceanic in their habits, visit the shore solely for the 

 deposition of their eggs, and are secured on these occasions by being 

 cut off from their retreat to the sea and turned over on their backs, are 

 then conveyed at leisure to the reservoirs provided for their reception. 

 The sandy shore adjoining George Town, I was informed, is no longer 

 so rich and profitable a beach as it once was, the reason probably 

 being that turtle, like birds of passage, return again and again to the 

 same spot to deposit their eggs, and on this beach as being most 

 accessible, the greatest number of turtle have been turned, so that but 

 few visit it at present. No one but the government authorities is 



