THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 163 



perceptible decrease in their numbers, as every year all the "bird " 

 islands are undermined with fresh burrows, every one of which is 

 tenanted. At the east end of the island 1 found the Pelican 

 " rookery," the birds having left their old quarters at the western 

 extremity. The nests contained various numbers of eggs, in some 

 only one, in others two and three, some of which were fresh, 

 others incubated, and in two cases there were young birds — odd 

 things they looked in their featherless condition ! The wind 

 changing to the west, fresh and strong, we set sail, and steering 

 through the Petrel Islands, made a straight course to Circular 

 Head, arriving at six o'clock p.m., after a splendid run of forty 

 miles. 



A word on the distribution of the fauna, and I must bring this 

 paper to a close. On Robbins's and Walker's islands, which are 

 nearest to the mainland, there are Kangaroo, Wallaby, Rat 

 Kangaroo, and Bush Rats, with plenty of snakes, similar in kind 

 to those found on the mainland. On Barren Island there are 

 Wallaby, very numerous, and the Rat Kangaroo, and, so far as I 

 know, no other mammals, though snakes are found, as before 

 mentioned. But the only mammal ever found on Three 

 Hummock Island is the Rat Kangaroo, and I much regret being 

 unable to obtain a specimen. Snakes occur, but they are com- 

 paratively rare. None of the carnivora common on the mainland 

 occur on any island of the group. 



I append a list of the birds I met with amongst the various 

 islands, but no doubt they comprise a much larger number. In 

 addition to those mentioned, I saw on Three Hummock Island a 

 parrot new to me ; it was much like Platycerais flaviveniris (our 

 common green species), but the green was of a much lighter 

 shade, and was uniform, the bird having no other colour as far as 

 I could observe, and I was close to it for some time ; its note, too, 

 was unlike that of our parrot, being much sharper, with a metallic 

 ring which I had never heard before. It was a solitary specimen, 

 and I observed it as we were ascending the peak, and regret 

 being unable to procure it for identification. 



The marine shells are common to the mainland, the four 

 volutes own, and I picked up a very fine example of Cyprovulum 

 umbilicata, and other species less rare are to be found on all the 

 sheltered parts of the beaches. I found a flat valve of Myadora 

 ovata, a rare shell, which, so far as I know, only occurs in one other 

 locality, on South Bruni Island, south-east of this colony, and as 

 far distant as is possible from Three Hummock Island. 



I cannot offer an opinion on the strange distribution of the 

 mammals amongst this group of islands, especially in regard to 

 the solitary example on Three Hummock Island ; but the problem 

 is an interesting one, deserving of further study. 



