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



on all sides indicated a coming change. Sam began to talk 

 ominously of a week or so without being able to stir — a pleasant 

 prospect in so hot a place, and with nothing to do ! We drifted 

 in a calm all the morning, but afterwards, by the help of a few 

 flaws, managed to gain the inside of the lagoon ; then thei-e was 

 occupation enough. The water being like glass, we could see all 

 that was going on beneath us ; and a wonderful sight it was — 

 sea-fans waving to and fro, corals of every form growing in fan- 

 tastic shapes like trees and bowers, showing here and there a 

 rent through which the water looked dark and blue. We were 

 just on the edge of the reef, at one moment looking on this 

 watery garden, and the next over the coral-wall where the growth 

 stopped, and the depth sank suddenly. Grotesque-looking fish, 

 too, were swimming about, some playing amongst the corals, 

 others darting past, pursuing or pursued. A Shark also would 

 swim round, giving one half a shudder, it looked so close. An 

 hour spent thus was sooner gone than in whistling for the wind, 

 and a ripple on the water veiling the vision beneath made 

 us aware that the sea-breeze was not yet beaten. It came, 

 and, blowing all the harder for the delay, carried us along 

 towards Northern Two Cays at a pace that made up for lost 

 time. 



Towards the northern end of the lagoon the channel becomes 

 exceedingly intricate, and, in spite of all Sam's care and one of 

 the boys on the look-out to direct him, we were brought up 

 suddenly against a patch of coral — luckily during a lull, or the 

 ' Mary Ann's ' timbers must have started ; as it was, she was 

 apparently none the worse, being accustomed to such hard 

 knocks. We had to stop and anchor midway, night coming on 

 before we could thread the channel. The visit to Northern Two 

 Cays proved rather a failure : the " Gulls," as they are called 

 {Thalasseus acujiavidus) , had not yet assembled. A pair of 

 Dolichonyx oryzivorus and a Sanderling {Calidris arenaria) were 

 added to the collection, the former being an acquisition — the first 

 specimens I had seen in Central America. Near Cockroach Cay 

 a channel opens into the lagoons of Turneff, some miles to the 

 northward of the Grand Bogue. We steered for this point, and 

 on entering the lagoon passed along between the reef and the 



