SS 
A VISIT TO THE CLAREMONT ISLANDS. 455 
themselves about it. ‘They were in such swarms, and attached 
themselves so exclusively to this plant, that I suspected that it 
formed the food of their larve, so waited a bit and watched them, 
and presently observed a female settle upon one of the clusters 
of flower-buds, and after crawling backwards and forwards once 
or twice over them, and touching each individual bud with her 
antenne, as if looking out for a suitable spot, she thrust her 
abdomen between two of the buds and deposited an egg at their 
base. After this I had no difficulty in finding larve of all sizes 
feeding in the flowers; the petals of all those attacked withered 
and drooped, so that they could easily be detected. This Lycena 
was the most abundant butterfly upon the island; but several 
other species were taken, as well as a few small moths. 
At six o'clock Allenby rejoined me. He had bagged twenty 
Plovers and Sandpipers of different kinds, and said that they 
were remarkably wild, and that it was no easy matter to get 
within shot of them. On our way to the ship a tremendous 
white Shark followed the boat, and at one time I really thought 
it was going to attack us. It was a formidable looking monster, 
and must have been quite ten or twelve feet long. 
The next day, April 13th, the ship remained at anchor all 
day off the island, exercising at various drills, &c., and I was 
able to get on shore directly after breakfast. I took a gun, 
butterfly-net, and some lunch, and having deposited the heavy 
gear beneath the shadiest tree, put some cartridges in my pocket 
and proceeded to beat the island for Quail, &c. This took me 
about an hour, when I returned to the tree and rested for half 
an hour or so, and then went for an entomological ramble, 
returning to my tree again for lunch and rest, and so on until 
four o’clock, when I went on board. The time passed very 
quickly and pleasantly, though it was rather hot tramping 
through the long grass in a blazing sun. While eating my 
lunch, or dozing in the shade, the Herons pitched in the tree 
above or upon the bushes on each side, and seemed to scrutinize 
me very intently, and passed remarks to each other on my 
appearance and occupation in dismal croaks. I append a list of 
the birds met with. 
White Nutmeg Pigeon, Myristicivora spilorrhoa, G. R. Gray.— 
Only one seen and shot. It was a young bird, apparently not more 
than a couple of weeks from the nest, and much smaller than 
