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) being slightly attaked with symp- 

 toms of fever, which gave Avay by immediate bleeding, and 



gentle cathartics. 



Ma}' 14. The bird named booby (Pelecaniis 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 imder 

 side a dirty white ; the bill conical, slightly curved ; the 

 nostrils very open, being two wide longitudinal sJits on the 

 sides of, and about the middle of the upper mandible ; the 

 eye a dark brown approaching to black, surrounded by a 



