BIRD ISLES.

A few days afterwards we ran down to the Bird Isles, and anchored.  They are three low, wooded islets, one detached from the other two, which are situated on the margin of a circular reef.

NATIVES IN DISTRESS.

On the north-west island we saw a small party of natives from the mainland, consisting of two men and a boy, in great distress from want of water, until Lieutenant Yule kindly supplied their wants.  They had been wind-bound here for several days, the weather for some time previously having been too boisterous to admit of attempting to reach the shore, although only a few miles distant, in their split and patched-up canoe.  This was of small size, the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, with a double outrigger, and altogether a poor imitation of that used by the islanders of Torres Strait; the paddles were of rude workmanship, shaped like a long-handled cricket-bat.  Their spears and throwing sticks were of the same kind as those in use at Cape York, to be afterwards described.  These people were wretched specimens of their race, lean and lanky, and one was suffering from ophthalmia, looking quite a miserable object; they had come here in search of turtle—­as I understood.  Each of the men had lost a front tooth, and one had the oval cicatrix on the right shoulder, characteristic of the northern natives, an imitation of that of the islanders.  They showed little curiosity, and trembled with fear, as if suspicious of our intentions.  I made a fruitless attempt to pick up some scraps of their language; they understood the word powd or peace of Torres Strait.

On this island the principal trees are the leafless Erythrina, with waxy, pink flowers.  Great numbers of pigeons resorted here to roost.  I found here a large colony of that rare and beautiful tern, Sterna melanauchen, and mixed up with them a few individuals of the still rarer Sterna gracilis.

CAIRNCROSS ISLAND.

We anchored under Cairncross Island, on the afternoon of September 3rd, and remained during the following day.  The island is about a quarter of a mile in length, low and sandy, covered in the centre with tall trees, and on the outskirts with smaller ones and bushes.  These large trees (Pisonia grandis) form very conspicuous objects from their great dimensions, their smooth, light bark, and leafless, dead appearance.  Some are from eighty to one hundred feet in height, with a circumference at the base of twenty feet.  The wood, however, is too soft to be useful as timber.  Nowhere had we seen the Torres Strait pigeon in such prodigious numbers as here, crossing over in small flocks to roost, and returning in the morning; yet many remained all day feeding on the red, plum-like fruit of Mimusops kaukii.  In the first evening not less than one hundred and fifty-nine pigeons were brought off after an hour’s work by seven shooters, and next day a still greater number were procured.  Being large and well flavoured birds, they formed no inconsiderable addition to our bill of fare, and appeared on the table at every meal, subjected to every possible variety of cooking.  Some megapodii also were shot, and many eggs of a fine tern, Onychoprion panaya, were picked up.