FEATHERED TRIBES. 
73 
guished by brilliancy of plumage, or melody of 
song. There are, however, several varieties, and 
some of them in amazing numbers. The most 
numerous class are the aquatic birds. These skim 
the surface of the ocean, derive their subsistence 
from the sea or the inland lakes and streams, 
build their nests in the hollows of the craggy rocks, 
or haunt the lagoons and streams, rearing their 
young, and reposing by the side of the inland 
waters, or among the tall grass and rushes that 
border the extensive lakes or marshy hollows. 
Among the former may be reckoned the stately 
albatross, diomedia exulans , called by the natives 
obutu; the tropic bird, 'phaeton aetherius , called 
otaha; several kinds of petrels, called otatare, and 
others: these abound in all the islands, but appear 
to resort in greater multitudes to the unnumbered 
clefts in the rocky sides of the mountains of Bora- 
bora and Maurua, than to the more eastern islands. 
Among the lakes are several kinds of heron, that 
stand like sentinels on the broken rocks, watch¬ 
ing for their prey, or march with solemn gravity 
along the margin of the stream : wild ducks resort 
to the lagoons and marshes. 
There are several kinds of birds of prey, and a 
number of the woodpecker tribe, with some small 
paroquets, of rich and splendid plumage. In the 
inland parts of some of the islands, the turtle-dove, 
which is called uupa, and among the mountains 
pigeons, which, for the sound of their notes, the 
natives call uuairao, are found in considerable 
numbers. Among the singing birds, which are not 
numerous, the omaomao is the most conspicuous. 
It is about the size of the English thrush, is of a 
yellow and brown speckled colour, and in its note 
resembles the thrush more than any other bird. 
