James John Walker

“ A few fresh species of beetles rewarded my search, as well as several more fine specimens of Stokes's Lizard, which as before I could find only in one small spot near the east end of the island. Ascending a low hill on the north shore, I obtained a good view of the adjacent West Wallaby Island, which was connected to the eastern island by an almost continuous series of reefs and coral-flats, so that it appeared quite practicable to cross from one island to the other on foot at low water, the distance being about two miles. ”

“ The island does not in any part exceed fifty feet in height, and its shape may be described as a roughly equilateral triangle, each side measuring rather more than a mile in length, and with a long projection from the north-eastern angle. The soil consists almost entirely of clean white calcareous sand, on a base of coralline limestone, which crops out here and there in wide stretches covered with loose blocks, and contains many recent corals and shells in very good preservation. ”

“ Sharks were, if anything, more numerous than at Dirk Hartog Island, and several were caught and despatched by the sailors during the day; the stomach of one about eight feet long (which appeared to be the widely distributed Galeocerdo arcticus) contained, besides the carcases of two or three Wallabies which had been thrown overboard, more than a bushel of the remains of a large species of Sea-crawfish (Palinurus sp.) , among which were some nearly perfect specimens. ”

“ In the afternoon I walked to the eastern extremity of the island, which part is more open than elsewhere, with extensive stretches of almost bare limestone rock. Water appears to stand here in places during the rainy season, as I found a good many empty shells of a species of Succinea (scalarina, Pfeiff.) , as well as some very young living specimens adhering to the under side of large stones. ”

“ He writes as follows:—"By the middle of January the eggs [of Anöus stolidus] were nearly ready to hatch, and there would be an overwhelming increase of this species yearly but for the check which nature has provided in the presence of a small Lizard, which is very abundant in their breeding-places, and which finds an easy prey in the young of this Noddy and of Sterna fuliginosa. I am satisfied that not more than one out of every twenty birds hatched ever reaches maturity, or lives long enough to take wing; besides which great numbers of the old birds are constantly killed. ”

“ I saw one Kangaroo-rat, a creature about the size of a Rabbit, and a few small Lizards. In places somewhat sheltered from the breeze two or three species of blue butterflies were flitting about and some pretty little beetles were found by examining flowers; while the dead shells of a small, but rather handsome Bulimus, B. onslowi, Cox, were plentifully scattered over the sand, though no living examples could be found. The southern part of Dirk Hartog Island has, I believe, been occupied as a sheep-run, but the northern half is marked "uninhabited" on the chart ”

“ We hauled our boat up on a sandy beach, on which I found numerous specimens of a pretty little weevil of the family Cossonidæ under the heaps of Zostera; and then each went his own way, my messmates to shoot, and I to look for insects, or anything else that might turn up. By keeping under the lee of the high sandy banks next the sea, where the sun was hot and the breeze was not so much felt as elsewhere, I soon found some butterflies on the wing. These were of two species only—a little "blue" (Lycæna sp.) ”

“ These Lizards do not eat the whole bird, but merely extract the brain and vertebral marrow; the remainder is, however, soon cleared off by the Dermestes lardarius, an insect which occurs in amazing numbers, and gave me a great deal of uneasiness and constant trouble to preserve my collection from their repeated attacks." (I may remark that I saw no trace whatever of this beetle on East Wallaby Island, though I was specially on the look-out for Coleoptera.) ”

“ My messmates had enjoyed fairly good sport, as, besides the Wallabies, there were numbers of a very beautiful "bronze-wing" Pigeon, Phaps elegans, Temm., among the low bushes; and in the more open grassy places, a Bush-Quail, Turnix scintillans, Gould, was frequently flushed. This latter species is a little bird of sober though beautifully varied plumage, and appears to be peculiar to the Houtman's Abrolhos, having been first obtained there during the visit of the 'Beagle' in 1840. ”

“ The largest examples attain a length of nine or ten inches; it is of a rather stout and clumsy build, with short legs, and is covered with rather shining keeled scales, which on the tail assume the character of short spines. ”