Overview

Birth of a Coral Island

Nature of Coral

Flowers of the Reef

The Echinoderms

Amazing Defensive Weapon

Turtles of the Reef

Strange Behavior of Reef Crabs

A Deadly Killer

World's Largest Shellfish

Strange Oysters of the Reef

Rare fish of the Coral Seas

Unusual Vegetation

Birds in Millions

Angling Unsurpassed

Birds in Millions

The wonders of the Great Barrier Reef extend far beyond the water, for the birds are just as strange and interesting as the other life. A few years ago, a party of naturalists visiting North-West Island in the Capricorn Group computed that the mutton birds nesting in the sand at that time , numbered more than a million, and the noddy terns nesting in the trees above comprised about half that number. North-West Island is about two and a half miles in circumference, and comprises an.area of about three hundred acres. It will be seen, therefore, that the mutton birds occupied almost every square foot of the island, and the noddy terns made use of nearly every branch of the trees.