374 Bailey, Notes on Birds of Western Mexico. [oct*" 



Three weeks were spent on the "Rock," during which time a 

 number of Brewster's Boobies were caught while roosting at night 

 on the top of the island, and Red-billed Tropic Birds were secured 

 in the daytime while on their eggs or with their young. A series 

 of both species, with young of the latter, were put up. 



Another trip was made to Cleofa Island in the canoe, and this 

 time we fared as previously, only everything was tied in so that we 

 lost nothing except all the small birds I had gotten with my collect- 

 ing pistol, with the exception of one Cardinal, which is now in my 

 collection and whose plumage still shows the wetting it got. 



During our stay at the Rock the schooner in which we- came was 

 wrecked at San Bias by a 'chubasco' when ready to start on her 

 return trip with mail and supplies, and we made our return in 

 a leaky open twenty-foot yawl boat sent out in place of the wrecked 

 schooner. 



A few days were spent at Tepic, the capital of the Territory and 

 some fifty miles inland by stage coach. Here I managed to get 

 my camera partly fixed, my watch repaired, and collected a few 

 birds, besides attending to other business I had on hand. From 

 here a trip was made to Santiago by stage, some twenty miles, and 

 it was my intention to go down the river from here to San Bias by 

 canoe, but it proved impracticable and I returned by stage. 



On arriving at San Bias I secured a boat and crew and on April 

 6, at 8 p. M., set sail for Isabella Island, some forty miles northwest 

 of San Bias and twenty miles off the coast. My boat this time 

 was an open twenty-five foot ship's yawl, well caulked, and manned 

 by a captain and two boys. The wind was, as usual, light, but by 

 the next noon the captain pointed out an island and said it was 

 Isabella. 



Later on I discovered it was only one of the Tres Marias group, 

 and it was then that I learned that he could not read the compass 

 and was really steering by taking observations by the two tall 

 peaks back of the Plateno Rancho. On returning later to San 

 Bias I found that these peaks were the compass of most of the 

 sailors in that section. The second night out a 'chubasco,' some- 

 what in the form of a waterspout, passed within a quarter of a 

 mile of us, and the next morning, Sunday, the 8th, found us still 

 about fifteen miles from the island with no breeze, and it was not 



