64 Comm. Stuart St. J. Farquhar on two 
inside the reef, and can be approached only in a small boat, 
owing to the numerous rocks and the shallow water. On 
the way there our boat was the object of much curiosity on 
the part of the Boobies (Snla piscator ). These inquisitive 
birds, especially those in immature plumage, literally crowded 
round to see us. One would hover above my head, just going 
fast enough to keep pace with the boat; it would examine 
with an apparently critical eye every detail, turning its head 
from side to side in a most comical way. If I put up my 
hand to catch it, it did not attempt to fly away, but would give 
a sort of squawk and peck at my fingers; there it would 
remain till driven off by another who wanted to look. There 
was apparently no reason for these attentions, as we were a 
mile from the shore and in no way interfering with their 
domestic arrangements. 
The other Gannets were far more reserved and never came 
near us at all. S. piscator, as I have already mentioned, 
nested in great numbers on the main islands ; they make a 
nest like the Common Heron and lay one egg : certainly there 
was never more than one chick in a nest. They were all 
hatched out at the time of my visit. The young are clothed 
in snowy-white down, and never leave the nest until they 
can fly; this is doubtless necessary for their preservation, 
as the earth swarms with land-crabs, which eat everything 
and anything they can get, and make short work of a young 
Booby. These are very fat, and I watched the old birds 
feeding them on half-digested fish : naturally the nests smelt 
very strong. They are most difficult birds to skin satis¬ 
factorily on account of the fat, and the natives, when they 
require skins, adopt the cruel method of carrying the young 
away from the colony to some distant spot and placing them 
on bare bushes, where they soon get thin, being unable to 
obtain any food. I saw some which had lived thus nearly a 
fortnight and had plenty of vitality left. On our way to 
Goelet Island we passed many turtles, which were at this 
time just beginning to come ashore to lay their eggs; they 
swam very fast, and easily outstripped the boat. The 
immense number of birds on Goelet resembled from the sea 
