"BACK TO THE LAND." 217 



Nearly all the nests we examined on Orquilla, on this 

 ninth day of January, contained a single egg, somewhat 

 similar in shape and colouring to a kestrel's. One or 

 two nests were occupied by downy chicks. As we 

 examined them, the thought occurred to us, how strange 

 it was, that their beautiful parents should choose such 

 deep and dark holes in the rocks, wherein to bring them up. 

 How strange, too, that these ocean- roaming birds, which 

 hear the call of the land but once a year, should wing their 

 way back to them, at this time, with such unerring instinct, 

 over the trackless sea. For these free creatures of the 

 air and the blue water, these islets represent the one small 

 bond which still links them with the land ; and back 

 they yearly come to nestle once again in the warm bosom 

 of their foster-mother. 



We have remarked before, that when one first sets 

 foot upon little islets such as these, which have never 

 before been robbed of their ornithological secrets, there 

 is generally to be found some welcome little surprise to 

 greet the happy wanderer, anxious to justify the trouble 

 that has been taken in getting him there. 



Such was the case on Orquilla, and it was upon the 

 little plateau where we first came upon the nests of the 

 frigate-birds, and while I was taking photographs, that 

 my eye fell upon an unfamiHar looking land-bird. In 

 a second I had recognised it, as I thought, for some sort 

 of thrush which I had never seen before — ^perhaps some 

 totally new species, or even genus, which had gone on 

 surviving here through the ages, and which was, may be, a 

 relic of some bygone mountain race, from the days when 

 these islands were some thousands of feet nearer the 

 skies than they are to-day. 



To drop the camera and beckon frantically to the sailor 

 who was carrying my gun some way off, was, as they say, 

 " the work of a moment." The bird was sitting on a 

 low bush, forty yards away. If the man came to me, he 

 would for a certainty frighten it away. I signed to him 

 to shoot it — ^but could he do so ? I watched him in an 



