WATERS OP WESTERN INDIA. 16^ 



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tail to a marlinspike, which (for the benefit of any reader that 

 "does not know) is a long thick iron pin, with a hole in one end, 

 used for unlaying ropes. It is the characteristic tool of the boats- 

 wain, who is immediately in charge of all rigging : and the proper 

 place to carry it is in the back band of the trowsers. 



We have one G-annet, or Booby, which is probably Sula cyanops. 

 It is not Jerdon's White Booby (S. piscator), which has the bill and 

 feet red, while in our bird the bill is slate-coloured, blackish 

 towards the base, and the feet dull slate colour. It is 

 a good deal to be regretted that recent naturalists have appro- 

 priated Jerdon's English name to a bird for which he certainly did 

 «iot mean it, the more so because he prided himself on his system of 

 English names, and took a great deal of trouble to make them clear 

 and intelligible to everybody. A few birds of the present species are 

 driven on to the coast every year by south-westerly gales, and are 

 generally easily captured by hand. The present writer has sent speci- 

 mens to the Society's and Victoria Museums, so there need be no 

 doubt about the bird. 



I don't think any Pelican occurs in the Konkan. If an}', the grey 

 species may be looked for, and there would be nothing surprising in 

 its occurrence ; but the fresh-waters of the region are rather too small 

 for it ; and it does not seem to like sea water. The Large Cormorant 

 does not, I think, occur ; and the Lesser Cormorant (Graculus sinensis) 

 is not common. The Little Cormorant and Snake-bird are extremely 

 common. 



The highest reptiles of these waters are the Terrapins and Fresh- 

 water Turtles, which do not differ from those of the Deccan. I have 

 never got their eggs;* but they seem to breed in the rains, as the 

 young are very plentiful in October and November. 



Two species of Sea-turtles are common on the coast. They are easily 

 separated from those of the fresh-waters by having flippers instead of 

 feet, and never showing more than two claws on a flipper, often only 

 one. 



The first is the Indian Green Turtle, Chelonia virgata, closely 

 related to the Atlantic Chelonia viridis. The name I have adopted is 

 sanctioned by its use in Dr. Gunther's " Reptiles of British India," and 

 it is convenient to follow a standard work. It has thirteen shields of 



* Since the text was written I obtained eggs of a Fresh-water Turtle {Trionyx javan- 

 icus) by dissection. They are almost spherical, cream-white, with a hard calcareous 

 shell, about 25 in number. These Turtles, therefore, follow the Tortoiaea rather than 

 the Sea-turtles in the matter of eggs. 



