86 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



Mr. C. M. Woodford, who visited the Gilbert Group in 1884, 

 records in the " Geographical Journal "* seeing several of these 

 birds captured on one of the islands, and which he was informed 

 were used for similar purposes. He writes as follows : 



"These natives catch and partially tame the Frigate-bird, and 

 employ it to convey messages from island to island. I was 

 informed of this fact by the natives, but was loth to believe it. 

 At Apamama I saw, however, three of the birds kept upon 

 T-shaped wooden perches opposite to the king's house. A long 

 line was tied to their tails. When wild birds were seen, some 

 fish were thrown upon the ground, and the captive birds made to 

 take wing. By this means the strangers were induced to settle, 

 and while engaged in feeding on the fish, a line at the end of a 

 rod about six feet long, having at the end a stone about the size 

 and shape of a fowl's egg, was thrown over them, whereby their 

 wings became entangled and they were caught. I saw the tame 

 birds and the apparatus for catching the wild ones ; but although 

 some were seen, they could not be induced to settle, so that I 

 missed seeing the most interesting part of the performance." 



In June, 1896, the Hon. C. R. Swayne, late H.B.M.'s Resident 

 at the Gilbert and Ellice Groups writes me as follows : " I could 

 never find that the Frigate-bird was used to convey messages 

 between islands. The old men always laughed at the idea." 



Although the Pigeon inhabiting the Ellice Islands has been 

 often observed, I can find no record of adult specimens ha\ ing 

 been obtained, but there is little doubt that the birds seen by 

 Mr. Jansen on Funafuti in 1876, and on Niu in 1895, were 

 correctly identified by them as Globicera pacifica. 



To Dr. Sharpe's and the Rev. S. J. Whitmee's list of th 

 Ellice Island birds may now be added Urodynamis taitensis, 

 observed by Mr. Swayne on Niu,f and Totanus incanus and 

 Sterna melanauchen, collected by Mr. Hedley. 



The number of species at present known to frequent the islands 

 of the Ellice Group will be considerably augmented when the 

 collection formed by Mr. Gardiner, one of the members of the 

 same expedition, is worked out. 



*The Gilbert Islands Geogr. Journ. (1895), vi., 4, p. 347. 

 fNote on a Cuckoo taking possession of a Tern's nest, by A. J. 

 North Proc. Zool. Soc. (in lit.) 



