146 Mr. E. G. B. Meade- Waldo,


of Rails, by their squeaking and grunting, a sound extremely

like that of our Common Water Rail. They were quite tame

and shewed no fear. We caught two, an adult and a full-grown

young one, both of which are now alive and thriving in the

Western Aviary in the Zoological Gardens. Ralhis abbotii is

peculiar to Assumption island, as indeed were all the land birds

we found upon it, with the exception of the Black and White

Crow. The other land birds are a Dove, a Sunbird and a delight-

ful Lark-heeled Cuckoo, Centropus assumptionis . This last would

nearly let you catch it, but not quite ; we could easily have

caught it had we had a little more time. We found its nest,

domed, of grass, with two white eggs. Many sea birds nested

on the island, amongst them the lovely salmon-pink Tropic-bird,

Phaethon rubricauda.


From Assumption Island we went to Aldabra, and were

astonished at the great size of it, with a large lagoon in its centre.

The two crescent-shaped islands must be 100 miles round. It is

not uninhabited, there being a small negro settlement of thirty-

four persons at one end who see to the Turtle and Shell Turtle

fishery, and also look after a small coco-nut plantation. The

rest of the island, or rather islands, are covered with scrub and

forest, and extremely difficult to get about upon. Practically

every bird upon this island, with the exception of the sea birds,

is peculiar, but by far the most remarkable is Abbott's Ibis {Ibis

abbotti). This Ibis, of which the Colony is about thirty miles from

the settlement, was the most confiding and delightfully familiar

wild bird that I ever saw. It had no fear or suspicion of man, and

allowed one to pick it up without shewing any resentment and,

when put down, proceeded to investigate your boots. It was

hard to photograph because it would examine the camera ; but,

in addition to this, we had mostly pouring rain to contend with.

We saw some thirty individuals, but there are probably more,

and I suspect there are other colonies on the island which are

not known.


A peculiar Weaver-bird, Nesacanthis aldabranus, was very

nice, and abundant in the little settlement. And this island is

the original home of the gigantic Land Tortoise. Testudo elephan-

tina. Many of the laud birds are races of those which frequent



