328 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



for Cocos. It may have been out for days without 

 tiring, and in the case of such low-lying storms as 

 those hereabouts, could easily rise above the level 

 of the rain. The two Cocos boobies, the red- 

 footed and the white-breasted, came in numbers to 

 our lights. These birds travel thirty and forty 

 miles to and from certain fishing grounds, but are 

 not capable of nearly as prolonged flight as the 

 frigates. The boobies of Tower Island feed for 

 the most part, forty miles away from home in the 

 direction of Indefatigable, although fish seem quite 

 as abundant near at hand, and here at Cocos the 

 same inexplicable habit would seem to hold. We 

 caught several boobies on the decks and caged them 

 for exhibition in the Zoological Park. When first 

 caught they were fiends incarnate, dashing them- 

 selves against the wire, screaming and striking 

 fiercely with their powerful beaks. Within three 

 days they had become quiet, almost gentle, making 

 no attempt to injure the hand which provided them 

 with fish. A hint of the wonderful sight and bal- 

 ance which they use in diving after their prey is 

 shown in the way they catch pieces of fish, for no 

 matter how swiftly it is thrown or at what awkward 

 angle, with a slight twist of the neck the fish is 

 caught. 



Shearwaters were in sight almost every day, the 

 dusky, and the larger, white-fronted species. One 

 day while watching a school of tunnies leaping 

 high in air, a dusky shearwater wheeled into sight 

 directly in front of the bow. I watched it with 

 the glasses for a time and, as I had paper and 



