558 Mr. Karl Plath : With the 



and I was in the water. I made a wild grab for the rocks 

 and drew myself up, but not without many cuts and bruises, 

 for the rocks about Bermuda are the most treacherous I 

 have ever seen. I managed to catch the rope, and pulled 

 the boat in to enable my guide to land, and after fastening 

 it to prevent it from being dashed against the rocks, we 

 started to explore. 



A gleam of white under a projecting rock attracted our 

 attention, and investigation proved it to be an old bird and 

 a young one about ten days old. The mother's wing pro- 

 tectively encircled her chick, and on our approach she 

 uttered her peevish cry, which the youngster feebly tried to 

 imitate. However, I proceeded with the photographing, 

 and succeeded in getting a fairly good result in spite of the 

 darkness of the nesting-cavity. 



The nests on these islands are placed in quite different 

 locations from those seen in Elie's Harbour. The islands 

 in Castle Harbour are low and comparatively flat, and 

 are composed almost entirely of sharp coral rock. On 

 some of the islands (these are the very small ones and 

 uninhabited) the rocks are covered with a long, coarse 

 grass, and in this were a few nests entirely hidden. Several 

 times the harsh cry of a bird, almost under my feet, pre- 

 vented my treading on it. Nests were also placed under 

 the decorative Bermuda cedar shrubs, which formed a 

 beautiful background to the bird. 



My guide, who had studied the birds for years, gave me 

 much interesting information regarding them. He said 

 that they returned year after year to the same nesting- 

 place ; he had placed a wire ring on a bird^s foot, and 

 observed that it returned for three successive seasons. 

 They attain their red bills and full plumage in their third 

 year. To determine the time of incubation he procured a 

 freshly-laid egg and placed it in an incubator. It hatched 

 after a period of twenty-eight days. 



On another island comparatively bare of vegetation, I 

 found peculiar tunnels in the rock close to the surface — in 

 some places broken through and exposed to the light. 

 Nearly every opening showed a brooding Tropic-bird beneath 



