150 Natural History of Pratas Island. [April, 



known to seamen. They fly heavily and usually low, fearlessly 

 approaching within gunshot, and even stone's throw, and some of 

 the men amused themselves with throwing lumps of coral at them 

 as they flew by, the same bird returning again and again at the 

 risk of being knocked down. 



A walk through the interior of the island among the shrubs 

 and bushes revealed to me the domestic economy of these birds. In 

 the open places, and under the shelter of the bushes, the mother 

 gannets were sitting upon their nests and eggs. The nests were 

 mere hollows in the coral sand, strewed with a few bits of grass, 

 with some admixture of feathers, and perhaps a bit of seaweed, 

 forming, at best, a very rude cradle, in which were deposited two 

 eggs. These eggs were about the size of goose eggs, white, with 

 a suspicion of a blue tinge, not smooth and glossy like hens' eggs, 

 but more or less scratched, as though the scratches were made 

 when the external coat was soft, and had afterwards dried pre- 

 serving the marks. One nest only contained four eggs. The poor 

 bird sitting upon this nest would show symptoms of uneasiness as 

 I approached, pecking the ground or coarse grass fiercely with its 

 long, straight beak, but did not offer to quit the nest until I was 

 within two or three yards of it, or even less. Then placing the 

 end of its bill upon the ground, with a gulping effort it vomited up 

 its meal, depositing it beside the nest, and floundering forward, 

 took wing and rose into the air. This was the proceeding at 

 nearly every one of the hundreds of nests which I disturbed ; it 

 was evident that the birds had just gorged themselves with food, 

 and then sat clown upon their eggs (unless, indeed, the mate had 

 brought them food, a circumstance which I did not see myself), and 

 that they were unable to raise themselves off the ground until they 

 had got rid of the superfluous weight in their stomachs. On 

 examining the vomited food, I found it to consist invariably of 

 flying-fish, generally of a large size, and usually but slightly 

 digested. There were sometimes six or seven of these fish, in other 

 instances only three or four, and in two or three cases a squid 

 or two intermixed with them. But what numbers of flying-fish 

 must exist in the neighbourhood to afford such a daily supply to 

 so large a number of birds! and yet we did not see a trace of 

 flying-fishes about the island, and might otherwise have supposed 

 there were none. Meanwhile the gannets formed a thick cloud 

 overhead, the noise of whose screams and the rustling of whose 

 wings formed a wild accompaniment of sounds. They flew so close 

 overhead that I could have knocked them down with a stick in any 

 numbers, and was obliged to wave my gun about as I walked 

 along, in order to keep them from carrying away my hat. By 

 degrees the birds rose higher, and those I had disturbed returned 

 to their nests as soon as I had passed a few yards. 



