BOOBY AND MAN-O'-WAR BIRD 207 



nesting at our threshold, and the rays of our lantern showed 

 them sleeping with heads tucked under the feathers of the 

 back, a seemingly headless parent standing on each side of 

 a generally sitting, headless chick. 



During the day a shift in the wind forced the ' ' Physa- 

 lia" to run around to the east side of the Cay, where, on the 

 night of the 10th, in heavy thunder squalls, she rolled scup- 

 pers under. On shore the first rain which had fallen in 

 months caught us when we were least prepared for it. The 

 incident illustrated the difference between the seaman's and 

 the landsman's point of view; Dr. Mayer, on the unstable 

 '^Physalia" pitying those "poor devils under a bit of can- 

 vas in a deluge, ' ' while we, believing a surplus rain-drop or 

 two to be better than the depths of the sea, were congratu- 

 lating ourselves that we were not aboard the boat. 



Cay Verde is about half a mile long, by one-fourth of a 

 mile in greatest width, and roughly estimated, contains 

 some forty acres. 



On the west and south or shallow sides, there are steeply 

 shelving beaches, where, under favorable conditions, a land- 

 ing may be easily made ; on the eastern side the deep blue 

 waters of the ocean break directly against the characteristic 

 water-worn limestone rock, of which Cay Verde, in common 

 with other Bahama islands, is composed. At the northern 

 end, where the islet terminates in a point, this rock is but 

 little above sea-level. Southward it gradually increases in 

 height, and with pronounced irregularities in coast line, 

 reaches a bluff-like elevation of seventy-five feet at the 

 southeastern extremity of the islet. About one-eighth of the 

 surface of the island is covered with a dense growth chiefly 

 of sea grape {Coccolobis uvifera) but with a liberal mix- 

 ture, mainly about the borders, of a " prickly pear ' ' cactus 

 (Opimtia) and sea lavender (Tournefortia). 



Where sufficient soil has accumulated, the remainder of 

 the island supports a growth of coarse grasses, sparse on 

 the higher rockier portions, more luxuriant in the lower 



