A VISIT TO FERNANDO DO NORONHA. 45 



small green bird, like a Willow Wren, very active, but by no 

 means difficult to shoot. We never succeeded in finding its nest. 

 The dove above mentioned was particularly abundant and tame. 

 It makes a small nest of sticks lined with roots, in the branches 

 of trees, in which it deposits two white eggs. Specimens of the 

 nest, with eggs, on the entirely bare branches of the burra-tree, 

 a curious endemic tree, were brought home, and are now in the 

 Natural History Museum. This dove is found on all the islands 

 large enough for it, and flies from one to the other. It has, 

 I believe, played an important part in the distribution of plants 

 in the islands. The crops of the specimens we shot were often 

 crammed with seeds of the small wild melons, which are abundant 

 on the islands, and we found them very excellent eating. The 

 convicts often keep these birds in cages. They have rather a 

 harsh note, that seems disproportionately loud for the size of the 

 bird. One specimen that was shot on the nest, in order to prove 

 a certain point, was found to be a male. 



Towards the end of our stay on the island, some small wading 

 birds made their appearance. A pair, about the size of Curlews, 

 were seen on the sand-hills. They were very wary, and it was 

 with difficulty that Mr. Ramage got a shot at them, but they were 

 almost out of range and escaped, going out to sea. On the same 

 day a Sandpiper of some kind was seen at a small pond, made 

 for the goats to drink at, near the same sand-hills ; but it was 

 disturbed by a convict, and flew to the shore, where we made an 

 unsuccessful attempt to stalk it. It is very possible that these 

 birds had come across from the mainland, which might account 

 for their shyness. 



There are no indigenous Mammalia on the islands. The 

 Black Rat, which has been introduced, is exceedingly abundant 

 and destructive, climbing the cocoa-nut palms and papaw-trees 

 and devouring the fruit, and haunting the melon patches, where it 

 does much mischief. Equally abundant is the common Mouse, 

 which is so tame that it may sometimes be caught in the hand, 

 and quite easily with a butterfly-net ; they live on the seeds of 

 the Cassias and other Leguminosce which abound in the island, 

 and I have seen one on the very top of a flower- spike of 

 Crotolaria, a kind of yellow lupin, the seeds of which it was 

 nibbling. It is this animal — and not the Rat — that has given the 

 name to Rat Island, which is a translation of the Portuguese 



