Mr. 0. Salvin on the Sea-birds of British Honduras. 381 



coloured throat-pouches, vanish behind the tree as one ap- 

 proaches too close. The whole afternoon was taken up with 

 skinning a series of the different plumages of the Booby and the 

 few small birds I had secured ; but just before sunset I again 

 walked round the island to watch the Boobies returning to 

 roost from their fishing-grounds. They came trooping back in 

 flocks of twenty or thirty, the greater portion from windward, 

 and flying at a dashing pace. They did not settle at once, but 

 kept sailing round and round till after sunset. While watching 

 them, I recognized a single immature bird of the common species 

 {Sula fiber), its browner throat enabling me to detect it. I 

 saw no others there, but afterwards at sea several flew round the 

 schooner. Having pretty well finished the day's work, we slung 

 our hammocks in the rigging, and slept soundly till dawn. 



May 10th. — Remembering the Terns we had left the previous 

 day about the old snags on the reef, I returned in the schooner 

 to Saddle Cay, shooting a specimen of Thalasseus acuflavidus by 

 the way. At Saddle Cay we found a fresh arrival of Terns and 

 Laughing Gulls [Larus atricilla). The former all belonged to 

 a second species of Sooty Tern [Haliplana panaya) . No time 

 had been lost by the Terns, for on seai'ching the Cay we found 

 four eggs had already been laid. A little sand was scratched 

 away for a nest, under such shelter as the bushes that grew 

 nearest the beach afforded. This Haliplana is know^n to the 

 Creoles as the " Rocky Bird." It is a very graceful species, 

 though its flight is rather heavy for a Tern, not having the 

 same dash about it that so strikes one on watching its congener 

 H. fuliginosa. The eggs are rather less ruddy and smaller than 

 those of the commoner species, but similar in other respects. 



There was nothing more to be done now at Lighthouse Reef 

 beyond replenishing our stock of wood and water, which occu- 

 pied the remainder of the afternoon. Fresh water, such as it is, 

 may always be obtained on these Cays by digging a hole in the 

 sand some distance from the beach, andthen buryingatub with the 

 ends knocked out to keep the sides of the hole from falling in. 

 In the course of a few hours water filters through, which at first 

 has but a slightly brackish flavour. This increases as the water 

 stands, till it becomes too strongly impregnated with salt to 



