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Crabs pitrsued by Eels. 2 ig
for walking over it presents quite as unsatisfactory a surface as
volcanic clinker. All the central part of the islet within the
inner drift beach is covered with scrubby grass and low bushes
of the same character as those at Bird Island. There were one
or two young shoots of a Barringtonia ; but nothing else in the
shape of an arborescent plant. Among the dead shells, light
driftwood, and bleached sponges and coral blown up on the inner
beach, I noticed some of the familiar rhomboidal fruits of a
Barringtonia.
There were no land birds. The sea birds were identical with
those of Bird Island. Young unfledged gannets were waddling
about among the bushes, and as regards the other birds, their
nesting season also seemed to be over. I did not notice any
petrel burrows, but everywhere near the beach were the burrows
of a littoral crab, a species of the genus Ocypoda. On the rocks
at the northern extremity were multitudes of the widely distributed
Grapsus variegatus. When chasing tliem over the rocks of
the foreshore, I observed that they were reluctant to take to the
water, but preferred to keep clear of me by scampering away over
the coral further inshore. The cause of this strange behaviour on
their part soon became apparent; for the rockpools about the
foreshore were tenanted by savage grey eels, ranging in length
from two to three feet, and I saw that the moment an unlucky
crab was forced to enter one of these pools, he was immediately
snapped up and devoured. I was surprised to see the coolness
with which an eel would every now and then raise its head above
the water in which it lay, and look about over the adjacent rocks
to see if any crabs were near. On starting an eel from its hiding
place, it would scuttle with astonishing rapidity over the low
rocks which separated it from the water’s edge, so that it.
was no easy m.atter to secure orte without the aid of a gun
Shooting them, as they wriggled off in this way, was rather
good sport.
The island is evidently visited by turtle during the breeding
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