ound them in prodigious numbers a little
way on. Cousin Silas insisted on our tying up old Surley, to prevent
the unnecessary destruction which he dealt among them. Before
committing any great slaughter among them, Cousin Silas advised us to
kill only a few of each description, to ascertain which were the most
palatable for present consumption, and which were likely to preserve
best for future store. Sitting on nests roughly constructed of sticks
among the shrubs, were a number of frigate birds (the _Tachypetes
Aquila_). He is a magnificent fellow, allied in some respect to the
cormorant, but with shorter legs, and having a forked tail. His plumage
is a rich empurpled black, and the beak, both mandibles of which are
curved at the tips, is red. His wings are of immense length, and his
power of flight is wonderful. He can fish perfectly well for himself,
but he is a most irreclaimable pirate, and likes to watch till other
birds have seized their prey, and then he drops down upon them and
carries it away. Sailors also call them men-of-war birds, but I think
they ought to be called pirates. We looked into their nests, and found
only one egg in each.

While sitting down taking our luncheon, we observed a snake crawling
along out of the grass, and wriggling his way towards the sea. For what
he went there I do not know. He had better have kept away. Just as he
got below high-water mark, out darted from the crevice of a rock a huge
crab, and seized him by the nape of the neck. The snake wriggled, and
twisted, and tried to free himself in vain. Mr Crab held tight hold of
him, and seemed resolved to eat him up. Poor Snakie tried to get his
tail round a bit of rock, to keep himself out of the water; but Crabie
pulled and hauled, and, in spite of all resistance, got him down to the
very edge of the water, knowing that when once under it his struggles
would very soon cease. Crabs have, however, to learn the lesson that
there is many a slip between the catch and the feast. A frigate bird
had from afar espied the combat, and, flying like a flash of lightning,
downward he darted and seized the snake by the back. The voracious crab
held on, not liking to lose his prey, till he found himself borne
upwards from the ground, and in unpleasant propinquity to the frigate
bird's sharp beak. He must have felt that if he did not let go at once,
he would be dashed to pieces; still, as a miser clutches his bags of
gold, did Mr C