46 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
ration from the decks, &c. after rain, being found to lower 
the thermometer a degree or more below the temperature 
of the rain in falling. With respect to my own people, I 
obliged them to wear flannel next their skin, in addition to 
the other precautionary regulations ; and the good effect of 
these precautions was fully evinced in the continued good 
health of the crew, one or two only (and these were proved 
to have neglected them) bemg slightly attaked with symp- 
toms of fever, which gave way by immediate bleeding, and 
gentle cathartics. 
May 14. The bird named booby ( Pelecanus sula) now fre- 
quently settled on the yards in the dusk of the evening, and 
two of them were taken ; the external characters of these 
birds seem by no means to authorise their being placed in 
the genus of Pelican. Of the two individuals now taken, the 
largest measured 18 inches from the point of the bill to the 
extremity of the tail, and weighed seven ounces; the 
plumage a rusty brown, deepest and rather glossy on the 
upper side of the wing quill feathers, the crown of the head 
only being of a dove colour, lightest towards the forehead. 
The upper sides of the wing quill feathers black, the under 
side a dirty white; the bill conical, slightly curved ; the 
nostrils very open, being two wide longitudinal slits on the 
sides of, and about the middle of the upper mandible ; the 
eye a dark brown approaching to black, surrounded by a 
