Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/326

298 almost entirely of a shrubby character, and not very easy to get through in some parts. Compositæ, Chenopodiaceæ, and Rutaceceæ seemed to be the prevailing natural orders, with a few stunted Acacias, as well as a small round-topped bush or low tree with a stem about as thick as one's leg, and ovate leathery leaves, which was not in flower at the time; so I could not make out its affinities. The beach above high-water mark was clothed with "bent-grass," and in some of the more open parts a yellow Senecio, and a Mesembryanthemum with bright pink flowers, carpeted the sandy soil. Except for the Wallabies, there appeared to be no great amount of animal life, as this island, unlike the southern members of the group, is apparently not a breeding station for sea-birds. I could find no traces of guano in any part, nor any burrows of the Sooty Petrel or "Mutton-bird," Thiellus sphenurus, Gould, though a good-sized black Petrel, presumably of this species, was commonly seen on approaching the anchorage, and the adjacent West Wallaby Island is described as being a perfect warren of these birds (cf. Stokes, loc. cit., and Gould, 'Handbook, Birds of Australia,' vol. ii. p. 466). Neither could I meet with any evidence of the two Noddies, Anöus stolidus, Lath., and A. melanops, Gould, or of the Sooty Tern, Sterna fuliginosa, Gmel., all three of which breed in such multitudes on Rat Island and others of the south islands, nesting in the scrub. Along the sandy beaches, which were encumbered with great piles of washed-up Zostera, numerous Gulls and Terns were to be seen, the former being represented by the common Australian species, Larus novæ-hollandiæ, Steph., and the large and powerful L. (Gabianus) pacificus, Lath.; while the latter included, among others, the handsome "Caspian Tern," Sterna (Hydroprogne) caspia, and the delicate little Sternula nereis, which the late Mr. Gould, its describer, aptly calls "a beautiful representative, in the Southern Ocean, of the Little Tern of the European seas.". [sic] Occasionally an Osprey, or an Australian Sea-eagle, Polioaetus leucogaster, Lath., was to be seen soaring high overhead; and on the coral-flats left bare by the receding tide, the pretty little Ægialiophilus riificapillus—very similar in habits, and also, except for its chestnut-red head, in appearance, to our own Ringed Plover—was busily feeding in company with Black and Pied Oystercatchers, Hæmatopus fuliginosas, Gould, and H. longirostris,