340 Murphy, Birds of Trinidad Islet. [f^ 



swordfish, but the upper jaw is very short. They have an espe- 

 cially curious appearance when they open their mouths widely to 

 feed, the seemingly useless bill merely passing beneath a bit of 

 food. Our sailors threw scraps of fat into the water alongside the 

 whaleboat, and captured many of the needle-gars with their hands. 

 Altogether we caught approximately two hundred fishes, repre- 

 senting nine species, of which two have proved new to science. 

 Seventeen species are known from Trinidad, but the whole number 

 of native fishes is doubtless far greater, and the abundance of 

 individuals almost beyond exaggeration. 



While we were fishing, a number of flat, triangular flies, Pseudol- 

 fersia spinifera, a species which lives as a parasite among the 

 feathers of the Man-o'-war Bird, flew into the boat. They scut- 

 tled sidewise like crabs, adroitly dodging capture, and seemed bent 

 on getting on the under side of whatever they alighted upon, 

 whether a gunstock, one's hand, or a thwart of the boat. These 

 flies were the only insects we saw. 



Birds were about in countless hosts, filling the air and covering 

 the rocks. The Noddies (Anous stolidus) were incredibly confi- 

 dent and curious, hovering round our heads, even alighting upon 

 them, and peering into our faces so closely that one had to look at 

 them cross-eyed. It was the simplest matter to catch them in the 

 hand as they fluttered among us. Four of them I banded with 

 aluminum rings of the American Bird Banding Association — 

 numbers 7941, 7943, 7945, 7947; may their wearers once again 

 entrust themselves within the clutches of a naturalist! But the 

 Noddies were not one whit more abundant than the exquisite Love 

 Birds (Gygis). At Trinidad there are perhaps more of these terns 

 than anywhere else in the world. They were flying mostly in 

 pairs, and pairs also were sitting together in many rocky niches. 

 Most delicate and wraith like of birds are these White Terns; 

 when they fly against the glare transmitted from a bright sky, the 

 dark line of their wing bones is projected like an x-ray shadow 

 through the milk-white feathers. 



Boobies soared among the pinnacles a thousand feet above us. 

 Man-o'-war Birds, flying overhead, seemed all head, wings, and 

 tail. There are two species at Trinidad, and both were more 

 interested in the brig offshore than in our tiny whaleboats. The 



