SEPT. 1768 



floating upon the surface of the water, and moving with toler- 

 able agility, as if the surface and not the bottom of the 

 ocean were their proper station. 



5th. I forgot to mention yesterday that two birds were 

 caught in the rigging, which had probably come from Spain, 

 as we were not then distant more than five or six leagues 

 from that country. This morning another was caught and 

 brought to me, but so weak that it died in my hand almost 

 immediately. All three were of the same species, and not 

 described by Linnaeus ; we called them Motacilla velificans, 

 as they must be sailors who would venture themselves 

 aboard a ship which is going round the world. To balance 

 to some extent our good fortune, now become too prevalent, 

 a misfortune happened this morning, almost the worst which 

 our enemies could have wished. The morning was calm, 

 and Eichmond employed in searching for what should 

 appear on the surface of the water ; a shoal of Dagysce was 

 observed, and he, eager to take some of them, threw the 

 casting-net, fastened only to his wrist ; the string slipped 

 from him, and the net at once sunk into the deep, never- 

 more to torment its inhabitants. This left us for some time 

 entirely without a resource; plenty of animals came past 

 the ship, but all the nets were in the hold, stowed under so 

 many other things that it was impossible even to hope that 

 they may be got out to-day at least. However, an old hoop- 

 net was fastened to a fishing-rod, and with it one new 

 species of Dagysa was caught : it was named lobata. 



6th. Towards the middle of the day the sea was almost 

 covered with Dagysce of different kinds, among which two 

 entirely new ones were taken (rostrata and strumosa), but 

 neither were observed hanging in clusters, as most of the 

 other species had been ; whether from the badness of the 

 new machine, or the scarcity of the animals, I cannot say. 



It is now time to give some account of the genus of 

 Dagysa, of which we have already taken six species, all 

 agreeing very well in many particulars, but chiefly in this 

 very singular one, that they have a hole at each end, com- 

 municating by a tube often as large as the body of the 



