The Birds of an Eastern Voyage 



considerably smaller than our "solan goose," 

 and a far less beautiful and interesting bird. 

 Its colour is simply brown, with the abdomen 

 white in adults, and the bill and feet brimstone 

 yellow ; it flies low, and appears never to make 

 the magnificent swoops so characteristic of our 

 bird. Indeed, although flying-fish, at any rate, 

 are very abundant, I never saw the booby catch 

 anything except when joining the other sea- 

 fowl in harrying an unfortunate shoal of fish 

 which was evidently in difficulties with enemies 

 below. At such times the scene is very lively, 

 gulls, boobies, and terns all uniting in making 

 the most of the opportunity at the expense of 

 the unfortunate fish. Terns, at any rate the 

 grey-and-white species, are not very easy to 

 identify, especially in strange seas, but there 

 is one which is always readily recognisable, and 

 very abundant in all warm waters. This is the 

 sooty tern {Sterna fuliginosa), a very strikingly- 

 coloured bird, black above and white below. 

 This is the bird known as the "Wide-awake," 

 one of its leading breeding-haunts, "Wide- 

 awake Fair," on Ascension Island, being very 

 well known. 



One of these birds once came on board a 

 ship I was on in the Indian Ocean. It was 

 thin, and so famished that it snatched and 

 swallowed raw meat when held in the hand, and 



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