EAGLE ISLAND. 109 



ground, and was no less than 26 feet in circum- 

 ference, and two feet eig'lit inches high."* An 

 American professorf conjectures the above nest to 

 have possibly been that of the Dinornis, the gigan- 

 tic New Zealand bird, known only by its fossil 

 remains. A very slight knowledge, however, of 

 ornithology, would be sufficient to confute the 

 notion of any struthious bird constructing a nest of 

 this kind, or of a wingless land bird of great size 

 inhabiting- an islet only a quarter of a mile in 

 length. Both Mr. Gould and myself have seen 

 nests of the same construction, the work of the 

 large fishing-eagle of Australia. 



This island is low and sandy, with a few casuari- 

 nas, or "she-oaks," a fringe of Suriana maritima, 

 some TourneforticB, and thickets of Clerodendrum 

 inerme. Land rail and other birds were numerous. 

 The reef, which is very extensive, did not dry 

 throughout at low water, but some sand banks 

 along its lee margin were exposed, and upon them 

 I found the greatest assemblage of "pretty" shells 

 that I ever met with at one place. What would not 

 many an amateur collector have given to spend an 

 hour here 1 There were fine Terebrcs in abundance, 

 orange-spotted mitres, minutely-dotted cones, red- 

 mouthed Strombi, glossy olives, and magnificent 

 Naticce, all ploug'hing up the wet sand in every 



* Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 599. 

 f In Silliman's Journal for July, 1844. 



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