Flying Fish and their Enemies. 275 



it would be useless to us either for food or preservation. 

 The sentence therefore was that the captive booby should be 

 set at liberty. Its bonds were accordingly unfastened, and 

 its long dark wings began to bang the deck while its out- 

 stretched head, tenninated by a formidable beak four inches 

 long, invested it with dangerous propensities in the eyes of 

 the ladies. The booby, like the albatross, is unable to rise 

 from the deck of its own accord ; our released prisoner was 

 therefore treated to a friendly heave by the deck officer an 

 act of kindness which it repaid by a vicious parting tweak 

 from its bill. 



