TO Natural History of Fanning’s Group. [February, 
It is the largest island of the group, and is situated the fur- 
thest to the eastward and southward, in close proximity to the 
equator. It consists of a narrow rim of land, thirty miles in cir- 
cumference, inclosing an immense lagoon. All of our research 
was limited to the western side. 
There are unmistakable evidences of an elevation beyond the 
height to which land can be built up by the waves and tides. 
North of the lagoon entrance a distinct old beach line could be 
traced running parallel to an ancient shore ridge, and distant 
about two hundred yards from the water of the present lagoon. 
The shore ridge, about twelve feet high, runs north and south, 
and is about one hundred yards from the sea-beach. Between 
the ridge and the beach the surface is thickly strewn with coarse 
eoral blocks of the old shore platform. At the time when the 
sea washed over this platform it was separated from the water 
in the lagoon only by the breadth of the shore ridge. A tract 
of land, from two to three hundred yards in width, has been 
added to the island by upheaval. The massive reef-rock is ele- 
vated all along the present shore line. The highest land is from 
_ fifteen to twenty feet high. 
This island is far removed from the others in its local conditions ; 
there is no fresh water, it rarely or never rains, the vegetation is 
low and scanty, — the densest of it hardly casting a shadow, — and 
the white coral sand glows with the direct rays of the sun’s heat. 
It was interesting to note the changed habits of the birds under 
these altered surroundings. In December, on Palmyra, the 
gannet (Sula piscator) had finished the period of its incubation, 
and the young were large-sized; on Christmas Island, one month 
later, we found the same species still sitting on their eggs, and few 
or no young were seen. These birds were observed to have a 
very curious habit in the latter locality, which they were not seen 
to possess on Palmyra. They constructed their nests on the 
low shrubbery, and under each nest was a mound, two or three 
feet tall, composed of twigs, and solidly cemented together by 
their excrement. They evidently occupy the same nest for sev- 
eral successive seasons, — for the lean bushes would hardly fur- 
nish a sufficient quantity of twigs to build up the mounds in a 
single season — and it may be they amuse themselves, while sit- 
ting on their eggs, by breaking off all the small branches within 
reach of their beaks and dropping them under their nests. 
The other birds are equally backward in the performance of 
their marital duties. On Palmyra the Gygis alba and the noddy 
