29» MR. J. J. LISTER ON THE [Apr. 2], 



of different birds' notes. They were so numerous that several titnes 

 when shooting a bird a second dropped as well, happening to come 

 into the line of fire. 



I was unable to land at Sydney Island owing to the heavy surf 

 on the beach. A boat effected a landing, but was so much knocked 

 about that no second attemjjt was made. It was very tantalizing, 

 as the greater part of three days was spent in the neighbourhood 

 of the island making soundings, and a great column of wheeling 

 Frigate-birds could be seen from the ship over one end of the island ; 

 and, flying over, I saw Gannets (Sula, 2 sp.), Boatswain-birds 

 (Phaeton ruhricauda), Noddies (one of the large ones and the little 

 A. cceruleus), and Terns, and small squads of Curlew, Plover, and 

 Turnstone. 



Canon Tristram has described a new species of Pintail Duck 

 {Dafila modesta) ^ from this island, which was obtained by Mr. 

 J. T. Arundel. 



A stay of only a few hours was made at Enderbury Island, and I 

 had no opportunity of landing. There appeared to be fewer birds 

 here than at Phcenix Island. 



We stayed at Canton Island from the 1st to the 9th of July. 

 As above stated this is an atoll-shaped island, formed by a belt of 

 low land enclosing a lagoon, which communicates only by one narrow 

 channel with the sea. Except for a few low bushy thickets of a 

 widely distributed tree [Tournefortia argentea, nearly allied to the 

 Heliotrope), this island is as treeless as Phoenix Island. Like that 

 island it is covered with a low bushy growth, but a rather larger list 

 of plants is found, amounting to some 10 species. 



AH the species of birds which we had seen at Phoenix Island 

 occurred here, except the Little Petrel {Fregetta albigularis). Besides 

 the Terns seen there I obtained : — 



Sterna bergii, Lichtenstein, 

 which ranges throughout the warm parts of the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans. 



Sterna melanauchen, Temm. 



This is a very beautiful little bird, having a black horseshoe- 

 shaped band limiting the white crown, a pale and most delicate 

 shade of slate on the back, and the rest of the plumage white, tinged 

 with a pale rose-colour. 



It is found in the Nicobar and Andaman Islands of the Indian 

 Ocean, and across the Malay Archipelago to the western part of the 

 Pacific Ocean, where it has been recorded from New Caledonia, Fiji, 

 Samoa, Tonga, Ponape, and the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. I 

 failed to find the nest. 



1 Tristram, P, Z. S. 1886, p. 79. 



