Birds of Christmas Island — King 
43 
Fig. 1 . Christmas Island, showing locations referred to in the text and the island’s general position in the central 
Pacific (inset). (Drawn with modifications from USN Hydrographic Office Chart No. 1839.) 
force for the plantation. There is no indi- 
genous population. 
A review of the literature describing the 
avifauna of Christmas Island begins with the 
account of its discoverer, Captain James Cook. 
On the afternoon of December 24, 1777, Cap- 
tain Cook brought his ships the "Resolution” 
and the "Discovery” to anchor off the west 
shore of the island. On the next day— Christ- 
mas Day — he and his men went ashore at 
Cook Island (Fig. 1), a small patch of coral 
and sand separated from the main island. He 
states (Cook, 1784), "As we kept our Christ- 
mas here, I call this discovery Christmas Is- 
land.” The vessels stayed at anchor several 
days to permit the men to refresh themselves 
and to observe an eclipse of the sun. Cook 
reports that there were no traces of human 
beings having been there before and that the 
number of coconut trees did not exceed 30. 
He had the following to say about the animal 
life ibid ., p. 188-189): 
Under the low trees above-mentioned, sat infinite 
numbers of a new species of tern, or egg-bird. These 
are black above, and white below, and with a white 
arch in the forehead [apparently sooty terns]; and are 
rather larger than the common noddy. Most of them 
had lately hatched their young, which lay under old 
ones, upon the bare ground. The rest had eggs; of 
which they only lay one, larger than that of a pigeon. 
