cNovember, 1932 Ghe Queensland Naturalist 
57 
lagoon or shelter for a boat. The reef round the island is 
very extensive and full of living coral. A few years ago a 
Turtle Soup Canning Factory was operating; this is now 
not working. Plenty of good tank water can be got from 
the caretaker. 
The position of Heron Island is such that from there 
most of the other islands in the Capricorn Group can be 
visited by one-day trips, i.e., weather permitting. Land- 
ing on these islands is always more or less difficult and at 
times the boat has to return without landing any one. 
Getting wet at landing up to the waist, or even up to the 
neck, is not a rare experience. It puts life into the party 
and the waters are warm. One does not mind getting wet 
but as everyone wants to take snaps the problem is how to 
save the camera and films. 
Four years ago we made an unsuccessful trip to 
Wreck Island, it had no shelter and the surf was too great. 
However, our luck was in on the last trip and we made a 
good landing on this seldom visited island. One coconut 
palm that grows in the middle of the island and is higher 
than the Pisonia trees, can be seen from afar. The Pisonia 
tree area is only small and very dense, almost impene- 
trable Tournefortia bushes surrounds it. I struggled 
through these bushes somehow — I wanted to see the inner 
part of the island, and when I got through a great sight 
was before me: there was no undergrowth among the 
Pisonias and this forest looked a picture, the trees were 
really graceful. 
I soon found the sentinel Coconut tree, which had 
four nuts on. The nuts were later on hauled down and 
the juice of the fruit was delicious on that hot day. There 
were no coconuts lying on the ground and evidently the 
tree is a shy bearer. 
We saw on Wreck Island four large white breasted 
Sea Eagles ( Haliaeetus leucog aster), but could not find 
any nest, unless it was in the low Tournefortia, which is 
very unlikely. One would expect one pair of these Eagles 
to be breeding on this island. Every small island in these 
grouns has one Eagle’s nest and the larger islands two 
or three. 
On the sandy coral beach of the northern end of 
Wreck Island were small breeding grounds of the Black - 
naped Terns {Sterna sumatrana). These pretty little 
birds were very shy; they also breed on Wilson Island, 
where I saw them four years ago. 
We were blessed with another fairly fine day and 
took advantage of it by visiting Mast-head Island where 
