3992 The Zoologist — May, 1874. 



and made the roclis to which we had to cling feel ahnost red hot. 

 We were exceedingly glad to reach the shelter of the bushes, and 

 on gaining them we paused a few minutes to recover our breath 

 and admire the scenery. The stems of the shrubs, the ground 

 beneath them, and most of the neighbouring rocks were covered 

 with a thin coating of white guano, which was by no means un- 

 pleasant to our olfactory nerves ; indeed the odour was somewhat 

 stimulating and tended to refresh one, and was as beneficial as a 

 pinch of snuff. After a few minutes' rest we pushed on our way 

 through the bushes until we reached one of the highest peaks of 

 the islet, and on arriving here we witnessed a sight it is impossible 

 for me to give anything but the faintest idea of. On the ground 

 around us between the rough boulders were shown the nests of the 

 booby, which were merely composed of the dead leaves fallen from 

 the adjacent bushes, and were so close together that we nearly 

 walked on them. These either contained eggs or young. The eggs 

 were usually two in number, and of a dirty bluish green colour, 

 thickly covered with a chalky substance, but although there were 

 always two eggs in a nest I never saw more than one young bird. 

 Perhaps the turkey buzzards which were flying plentifully over- 

 head could have given a satisfactory reason for this. These young 

 boobies were of all ages from the young squab just hatched to the 

 fully fledged bird able to fly ; the former were horrible-looking 

 creatures, blue-skinned and without any vestige of down, and felt 

 quite cold to the touch ; but some of the half or three-quarter 

 grown birds were covered thickly with snow-white down, through 

 which, in some of the older ones, the large wing and tail-feathers 

 were just appearing. These birds as we approached them stood 

 up to " attention" and snapped at us in a solemn manner with their 

 beaks as we passed. On the bushes above, the frigate-birds sitting 

 on their nests regarded us with the utmost indifference, and it was 

 only when we walked close beneath them or were actually climbing 

 to their nests that they condescended to move and fly away, and 

 even then tliey almost permitted us to touch them before they left. 

 As a rule, when we approached the vicinity of the nests and began 

 to shake the trees and clap our hands the birds disgorged whatever 

 happened to be in their pouches before they flew off, and this 

 invariably consisted of half-digested and very putrid fish, which fell 

 unpleasantly near to us. 



The nests of these birds are extremely loose in structure, and 



