-87- (10) GENERAL NOTES ON THE LINE ISLANDS. The earliest information from this group came from Cook's visit to Christmas Island--discovered by him Dec. 24, 1777. They found various birds: "Under the low trees sat vast numbers of a new species of tern, or egg-bird, black above, and white below, having a white arch on the forehead. These birds are somewhat larger than the com- mon noddy; their eggs are bluish, and speckled with black. There were likewise many common boobies; a sort greatly resembling a gamet; and a chocolate-coloured species, with a white belly. Men-of-war birds, curlews, plovers, tropic-birds, petrels, &c. are also to be seen here. We saw several rats, smaller than ours." Fanning, in 1798, discovered the island bearing his name, and describes the little lory in his "Voyages." Bennett and Coulter visited Christmas Island about 1834, and made a few observations on birds. Streets visited several of the islands in the winter of 1873-4, and made collections, but some of his birds were lost, and all of his collection of eggs was destroyed by rats on ship. He collected only on the western side of Christmas Island, and spent only "a part of one day" on Washington Island. The latter he says is the "most re- markable of the group", being an "obliterated atoll", and having in "place of the usual salt water lagoon" a "lake of fresh water, one mile long and half a mile wide, with a depth of four fathoms in its