THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 163 



the Pandanus Palm under which we had our meals and 

 kept our luggage. On going carefully round I saw the head of 

 the bird as she sat on her nest, but the nest itself was so well 

 hidden that it could not be seen ; yet it was only nine feet from 

 the ground. The tree was about six feet from our humpy, so 

 every time we had returned to our meals we must have frightened 

 her off the nest into the scrub, which accounts for our having 

 heard and seen her so often ; but she sat very close the second 

 day, and was evidently getting used to us. We did not disturb 

 her that night, and presumed she would have three eggs, and 

 discussed what would be done with the odd one ; but next evening, 

 when we took the nest, we found there was only one egg in it, and 

 on blowing it found that it had been sat upon for about a week, ' 

 and that when the bird was carrying about material in her beak, 

 and making us think she was only building it must have been 

 with the intention of misleading us. There was a small island 

 about half a mile away from us, on which we could see hundreds 

 of Terns, and they evidently had their rookery on it. We made a 

 kind of raft with what dead wood we could secure, and early in the 

 morning when the tide was out Mr. Barnard tried to get across, 

 but the current was too strong in the centre of the channel and he 

 was obliged to give up the attempt. We picked up a few shells 

 on the beach, principally Cones and Cowries, but as the spit of 

 the low land we were on was composed solely of broken-up coral, 

 most of the shells were very much waterworn and broken, and 

 we were surprised to find the few shells we got as perfect as they 

 were. Most of the rocks below high water mark were thickly 

 covered with small oysters, and very sharp we found them. We 

 spent the day in searching over the island, and found another 

 large Magapode's mound close by the beach, but no eggs in it j 

 we were evidently rather early for them. We were surprised to 

 notice so few species of birds on the island, as the mainland was 

 only about three miles away. We saw the Torres Straits Pigeon 

 {Garpophaga luctuosa), Megapodes {Megapodius tumulus), Rifle 

 Birds {Ptilorhis victories), Butcher Birds (Cracticus quoyi), one 

 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, one sma.\\ Kingfisher (Alcyone pulchra), 

 one pair of Honey-eaters, and a few yellow Zosterops {Zosterops 

 luteus). It is quite possible that the large number of pigeons 

 kept many other birds away. During the evening we stood on the 

 beach and shot two dozen pigeons as they flew past, as we had 

 promised to get some for the captain of the steamer that was to 

 call for us that night. We then packed up our things, and after 

 dark made a fire on the beach to show our whereabouts. The 

 steamer came at twelve o'clock, and we were soon on board, but Mr. 

 Barnard was landed again on the South Barnard Island, where the 

 fishing station was, as he was anxious to visit the tern rookeries, 

 and would be able to do so in one of their boats. I came on to 



