-36- them they were able to land on two successive days. On Pukaruha, Rangiroa, Reao, Tiaro, Tetopoto, Tikahau, and possibly others Wilkes found it inconvenient to permit the naturalists to land; evertheless, Peale saw on Pukaruha "clumps of higher trees with close foliage", and "among them were large flocks of birds", doubt- less sea-birds. He could also see birds on Tikahau. At Pukapuka (Honden), where he made two landings and brought away more memo- ries than birds--having to swim to and from the boat--he says "the numbers of birds of various kinds found breeding there on the 20th of August were so great, that our readers would doubt the enumeration, were it attempted. The nests were on the trees, bushes, ground, and even amongst the masses of broken coral thrown up by the sea. ...The most conspicuous were "Frigate-birds," whose nests, constructed of a few sticks only, covered many of the trees by their number." Andrew Garrett appears to have touched at Niau, and possibly other islands, though he probably did little bird work. Lieut. MacFarlane, R. N., visited Ducie, in March, 1884. The Agassiz Expedition of 1899-1900 cruised among the islands of this group, affording Dr. Townsend, the naturalist, a hasty shot at birds here and there, but this like most of the expeditions that preceded it was not primarily adjusted to land exploration, and bird collecting had to be done almost by stealth. On Makatea, for instance, Townsend says "Our stay was too brief to permit of