AN AUSTRALIAN BIBD BOOK. 
39 
loaded and clogged with these fruits that they are incapable of 
flight. Surely here is a wonderful partnership between the tree- 
frequenting Noddy and the forest tree that provides shelter and 
nesting places for it. It is, indeed, a marvellous method of seed 
dispersal. 
The number of ocean birds, breeding on these tiny island-para- 
dises is amazing. Minute Mast Head Island is a place free of 
all pests — no flies, no mosquitoes, no ticks, no snakes, nor prickly 
plants, but a deep shady forest of giant Pisonia trees, sometimes 
covered with creepers and lianas, and fringed with pretty flower- 
ing shrubs, fig trees, and long green grass, and surrounded, above 
spring-tide level, by a fringe of graceful Horse-tail Sheoaks 
(Casuarinas). We calculated that over 100,000 birds bred annu- 
ally on this 100-acre sandbank, no point of which rose 10 feet 
above spring-tide level. The graceful White-capped Noddies 
already mentioned nested high and low on the trees and shrubs. 
Petrels in thousands burrowed in the sand under the giant 
Pisonias, which are so thickly foliaged that not enough light 
penetrates to enable undergrowth to flourish, so the sand was 
practically bare in the centre of the island. Reef Herons nested 
low on spreading branches or interlacing roots. Silver Gulls ana 
Oyster-catchers nested on the ground, within about a yard of the 
spring-tide mark; Doves, Silver-eyes, Bell-Magpies (Streperas) , 
Caterpillar-eaters, Kingfishers, and other land birds nested in the 
trees, while the White-bellied Sea-Eagle (almost a fac-simile of 
the Bald Eagle of America) had his nest overlooking all, on the 
highest tree on the island. The Frigate Birds were not nesting 
on Mast Head Island, but they roosted each night in the tall She- 
oaks at the water's edge. It was a treat, in the late afternoon, 
to see these glorious birds winding up their invisible staircase 
into the vast void of upper air. Gloriously and calmly they 
sailed up and up, until the merest speck only could be seen. Of 
corals, turtles, and other marvels we may not speak here. The 
migrating wading-birds had just reached the island after their 
long journey from Siberian Tundras. Some were so poor that 
we caught Sandpipers by hand. Flocks of Turnstone, Golden 
Plover, Godwits, Curlew, and other wading-birds were there, pos- 
sibly only resting before continuing their journey to the South. 
It was indeed a privilege to live on such a spot for nine days and 
to see Nature in some of her most interesting phases. 
The two Australian Seagulls illustrate the "law of representa- 
tives" so often referred to by Gould. It is strange how often a 
closely similar representative of a Northern bird is found in Aus- 
tralia. Thus the big Pacific Gull is the representative of the 
large Gull of Europe, though its peculiar deepened and orange- 
colored bill is distinctive. It does not gain its beautiful white 
and black plumage until it is three or more years old, being 
brown in the first year, and brown and white in the second year. 
The Silver Gull is known to all. Though a dainty-looking 
bird, it has a bad character. It is worse than any bird of prey 
for stealing eggs and young birds, for let a gannet or other nesting 
