INCUBATION OF AQUATIC BIRDS. 513 



cooings of doves, mingled with the waitings of the Chacal. 

 A beautiful Sterna, black above and white beneath, also 

 lays a mottled egg in the middle of the islands, about 

 two feet apart, on the bare ground. The female sits on 

 the egg and defends it stoutly. The young are spotted 

 white and brown, and run like little Partridges. 

 - Another large, dark, ash-coloured species frequents the 

 vicinity of the sea, and lays a large, oval, white egg, among 

 the loose stones, near the shore. The young are some- 

 times white, sometimes grey, and often black. 



Another Sterna of smaller size, dark ash-coloured, with a 

 lighter coloured head, builds in the middle of the islands, 

 among the low bushes, constructing a rude kind of nest 

 of straw and leaves, forming a sort of platform. It 

 deposits one mottled egg, the size of a Pigeon's. The 

 young are grey or whitish. A small white species lays 

 a single egg (mottled and marbled,) close to the water's 

 edge, on a flat stone, quite exposed and unprotected. 

 The young are snowy- white, though occasionally greyish. 

 With all this incubation going on around, I could not 

 help thinking of Milton's description of a somewhat 

 similar scene, where he alludes to the birds in his "Pa- 

 radise Lost," 



" Hatching their numerous brood from th' egg, that soon, 

 Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclos'd 

 Their callow young, but feathered soon, and fledge, 

 They summ'd their pens, and soaring th' air sublime, 

 With clang despised the ground, under a cloud , 

 In prospect." 



The Saint Brandon Shoals, abound with fish of every 

 description, which afforded a rich treat to the ship's com- 

 pany, who caught them in large numbers, alongside. 



VOL. II. 2 L 



