300 CORAL AND ATOLLS 



distinct gain to the island community, for he is a gay fellow 

 in appearance, and not unattractive in his habits. In Forbes' 

 account of the atoll, it is said that the Jungle Fowl has been 

 established in the islands ; but all the wild fowls to be seen 

 during my stay were domestic fowls run wild. In North 

 Keeling atollon are great numbers of these, and it is a strange 

 thing that of the myriad birds in that vast sea-rookerj', 

 the domestic fowls are by far the wildest. In this little 

 island sea-birds breed in thousands ; frigate birds of two 

 species, gannets and boobies of three species, and terns of 

 three species, crowd all over the trees and bushes and litter 

 their eggs about the ground. All these birds have to be 

 practically pushed from their eggs, and they simply do not 

 know man, or regard him as in any way a peculiar product 

 of Nature. During my visit to this atollon, I met with no 

 further regard for my presence on the part of the birds than 

 the very solemn vomiting of large quantities of fish by the big 

 Abbott's booby when it was pushed from its solitary egg. 

 There is something rather sad about these birds. Their big 

 black masks give them a pathetic appearance, and when they 

 have vomited their fish, and their egg has been taken from 

 them, they walk away with an air of dejected resignation, as 

 though the affair was no longer of interest to them. 



The wonderful tameness of the birds on lonely islands is 

 sometimes difficult to credit, and the charge of exaggeration 

 is easy to make — yet I have myself seen the great frigates — 

 birds nine feet across the wing — picked up from the ground 

 without offering any sort of resistance. These birds were 

 not gorged with food, they were not sleeping, and they were 

 not unwell ; — they simply did not mind us walking about 

 among them. Yet you are lucky if you may get within thirty 

 yards of an old cock rooster who shows Plymouth Rock, and 

 Dorking, and many other familiar strains in his varied 

 plumage. He is in the company of three or four hens of 

 the same variegated hues, and in thorough farmyard style he 

 scratches over the turtle-grass which lies along the lagoon 

 shore ; but you have no sooner sighted him than he is away 



