SATELLITES AND NEIGHBOURS 35 



trait, was abandoned only when its exercise was un- 

 necessary, and resumed when there was conspicuous occa- 

 sion for it ? On a neighbouring island of the same group 

 unstocked with goats, no change in the habits of the birds 

 has taken place. 



Among the rocks of Purtaboi, in cool dark grottoes, 

 the brown-winged tern rears her young. She often permits 

 herself to be trapped rather than indicate her presence by 

 voluntary flight. One of the most graceful of the sea- 

 swallows this. Brown of back and greenish-white under 

 surface ; noisy, too, for it " yaps " as a terrier whensoever 

 intruders approach the island during the brooding season ; 

 and its puff-ball chicken, crouching in dim recesses, takes 

 the bluish-grey hue of the rock. 



The Blue Reef heron builds a rough nest of twigs on 

 the ledges of the rocks, sometimes at the roots of the 

 bronze orchid {Dendrobium undulatum), and endeavours 

 to scare away intruders by harsh squawks, stupidly betray- 

 ing the presence of pale blue eggs or helpless brood. 

 When the blue heron flies with his long neck stiffly tucked 

 between his shoulders, he is anything but graceful ; but 

 under other circumstances he is not an ungainly bird. 

 Occasionally my casual observations are made afar ofT, 

 with the medium of a telescope. Then the birds are seen 

 behaving naturally, and without fear or self-consciousness. 

 The other day the cute attitudes of a beach curlew inter- 

 ested me, as he stood upon a stone just awash, and ever 

 and anon picked up a crab. A blue heron flapped down 

 beside him, and the curlew skipped off to another rock. 

 In a minute the heron straightened his neck, poised its 

 long beak for striking, and brought up a wriggling fish, 

 which with a jerk of its head it turned end for end and 

 swallowed. Another actor came within the field of the glass 

 — the mate of the heron, alighting on the stone beside her 

 lord and master. He was in a peckish humour, and 

 instantly the tufts on his shoulders, the long feathers on 

 the neck, and the rudimentary crest were angrily erected, 

 and he made a peevish snap at her. You can imagine 



