378 Mr. 0. Salvin on the Sea-birds of British Honduras. 



and dash, with outstretched neck, into the water upon the shoal 

 of fish, which has perhaps shifted a little from the spot on which 

 the last descent was made. They rest but a moment on the 

 water — only time enough to bolt the prey, which is done by 

 throwing the bill upwards, thus slightly distending the pouch — 

 a ready bag to receive the fish, before held between the mandibles. 

 There were a good many King-birds {Tyrannus intrepidus) 

 amongst the shrubby trees that grow on the Cay; and a pair of 

 Ospreys [Pandion caroliyiensis) seemed to belong to the place, 

 though 1 saw no trace of their old nest. The gregarious habits 

 of the American Osprey, in contradistinction to the solitary pairs 

 usually seen in Europe, have been upheld as an argument for 

 their specific difi'erence. I believe, in neither case does the rule 

 hold : certainly the Central- American bird, common as it is on 

 these coasts, has nothing gregarious in its habits. Few of the 

 Cays of which I am now writing are without a pair, and yet I 

 observed no instance of more than a single pair frequenting one 

 island. On the other hand, in Europe instances occur in which 

 a large number of Ospreys are found within a very limited dis- 

 trict ; but perhaps in neither case can the Osprey be called gre- 

 garious, in the strict sense of the term. 



On nearing Saddle Cay we steered straight for Half-Moon 

 Cay, keeping just inside the reef. There were several old trees, 

 with their branches above water, lying stranded in the shallows, 

 upon which a few Terns were sitting; but I left them, as we 

 had a colony of Boobies [Sula piscator) to visit, and specimens to 

 collect, which would occupy the whole of our time. It is use- 

 less to accumulate too much work in those hot districts : the 

 specimens collected during the day must be skinned before the 

 next, or they are sure to be lost, and the skinning must be 

 thoroughly done, especially in the case of sea-birds, or the 

 specimen will prove of little value. The making up of the skin 

 is of least importance, and time is often lost by too much atten- 

 tion to extra finish. 



The northern end of this Cay, which is long, and shaped as 

 its name implies, is occupied by the pilots, who have their 

 houses scattered about under a grove of cocoa-nuts. There are 

 but few mangroves ; but the southern portion, as well as nearly 



