50 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



head iron piles of the Commissariat Jetty where she lay. With 

 the bore came the wind, which freshened rapidly, and some of us 

 began to hope for a capful of wind down the bay that Noddies, 

 Boobies and the like might come on board ! but our Palaeonto- 

 logist dissented strongly, assumed a recumbent position, and 

 admitted that he was a 



"Luxurious Sclave 

 Whose soul would sicken o'er the heaving wave." 



Being all in an amicable frame of mind, we unanimously 

 agreed that we would have fine weather, and nothing but fine 

 weather, and most of us were soon lulled to sleep by the 

 gentle rocking of the ship and the murmurs of our Crustacean, 

 who, though quiet enough by day, woke up into a state of 

 extreme liveliness at night, when the rest of us were beginning 

 to nod. 



3rd. — Passing Saugor Island numbers of Gulls followed in our 

 wake ; the great majority belonged to the species seen yester- 

 day, but there were also a good many of the Great Black- 

 headed Gull (L ichthycetus) and a few of the Herring Gull (L 

 argentatus). Of the Dark-backed Herring Gull (L. occidentalis, 

 Audubon) so common on the opposite side of the Peninsular, 

 e. g., at Kurrachee, (Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 273,) I did not 

 see a single specimen. 



Just after we parted with the pilot a large Sea Tern appeared 

 at our wake, and as it was important to know the species, I shot 

 it and dropped a Herring Gull with the second barrel. We 

 pulled up and lowered a boat, a good deal of sea was on, and in 

 jumping down from the rope ladder to the boat, I unfortunately 

 sprained my back,* a bad beginning for a hard cruise. The Tern 

 proved to be the Large Dark-backed Sea Tern S. bergii, Licht. 

 {vide Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 283.) 



By 5 p.m. we were well out into blue water, and had parted 

 company with all Gulls, Terns and bird life generally. 



4zth. — Out at sea — a perfect calm — a few flying fish scudding 

 about, but, there being no wind, scarcely rising above the sur- 

 face. 



About noon we passed a water-logged cocoanut stem, on 

 which was perched a single dusky little Petrel, and later we came 

 across a mass of drift and floating debris, about which a number 

 of these same Petrels were hovering ; we tried but failed to get 

 a shot at these. It is a curious fact that during all these years 



* I am sorry to say this greatly crippled me throughout, so that often I had to 

 crawl along or lie on the beach, or be rowed along reefs, when the others were working 

 through dense jungle. 



