THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 427 
By this time, however, unfortunately we had drifted to N. Lat. 
12°47"20' and E. Long. 72°47'30", not more than 6 or 7 miles 
from the edge of the Padria Bank (Bassas de Pedro, or Mun- 
gul Par, as it is sometimes called). We had no steam, the 
wind was N. by E. and the old “ Clyde’? would not work any 
thing above due east and we were afraid of getting too far 
south to strike Cherbaniani so we were fain take a sounding 
where we were, and, as might have been expected so close 
to the bank, found bottom at only 546 fathoms. 
During the day three more Bo’sun’s visited us. All these birds, 
were Phaeton atherius, or at any rate the species that we thus 
identify, and which is certainly not either favirostris or rubricauda. 
All of the same type, glossy, white, black-spotted birds, with 
short tails, the central tail feathers in no case projecting more than 
6 to 8 inches beyond the laterals. It will be said that these 
are young birds. But I have myself now shot and _ preserved 
more than a dozen specimens in the Gulf of Oman and the 
Indian Ocean, and I have seen at least 50 others hovering 
about vessels in which I have been, yet never have I chanced 
to see a single really long-tailed bird, such as Schlegel and 
Brandt describe. My impression is that the Pheeton of the 
Red Sea, Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf, 
will prove to be distinct from @therius of the Atlantic. It is 
certainly smaller in all its dimensions, as I shall show when 
dealing separately with the several species of birds met with 
at the Laccadives. 
February 1ith—During the night we had run down to 
Cherbaniani reef and in the early morning another Pheeton called 
on us, and received a hint to bide with us a wee. 
The next event was the discovery that, as if to make the 
cruise in this miserable old tub more pleasant, small-pox has 
broken out amongst the crew. In one case it is unmistakeable, 
in another it is probable. 
We have no other means of segregating the sick, and so 
st had hammocks slung for them on our small quarter 
eck. 
Cherbaniani is a long oval atoll, about 6 miles by 24 in its 
extreme dimensions. It is perfectly typical. There is the 
reef itself an almost perfectly unbroken line some 200 yards 
in width, just submerged at high, and more or less dry, at low 
water. In two places on the eastern, and one on the western 
side, narrow shallow natural channels exist through the reef, which 
admit the entrance of boats not drawing more than 3. feet. 
In three places, one at the extreme northern extremity, one 
towards the southern, and one about the middle of the eastern 
side, the winds and waves have piled up masses of coral 
