THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST, 451 
flock of Terns sunning themselves on a tiny out-lying patch in 
the lagoon some 50 yards inside the main bank, and in their 
midst one large dark brownish bird towering above them likea 
giant. 
When we were about 200 yards distant we cut off steam and 
ran on noiselessly with the way we had on, until we were about 
80 yards off the flock. I was lying ready in the bows, and as 
the big bird rose, I fired and had the luck, long shot as it was, 
to break a wing. It turned out to be a Booby, Sula jiber. 
Strange to say many of these as_ I have seen, it is the first that 
T have ever shot. 
As I knocked over the Booby all the Terns rose, and we gave 
them 3 barrels, bringing down 18 S. dengalensis and 12 S. Bergii. 
A few moments later, whilst we were busy picking up the dead 
and wounded, a small flock of Dromas ardeola, which must have 
risen on the seaward face of the bank, passed within ten yards 
of the boat, but my hands were full of Terns and 1 could not get 
at a gun in time, and they swept away towards the other end of 
the lagoon, where, although we saw them later, we quite failed 
to obtain a shot. There was not a particle of vegetation on the 
bank, and, although the people at Amini assured us that large 
numbers of Terns bred upon this bank (probably the two species 
above mentioned, of which there must have been some thousands), 
we could find on it no old or rotten or broken eggs, or other 
traces of this. Still the sand bank is so absolutely devoid of any 
vegetation, so entirely bare, smooth, and wind-swept that this is 
not to be wondered at, aud I do not doubt that these birds really 
breed here—probably towards the latter end of May. Neither 
Bergti nor bengalensis showed on dissection any signs of breed- 
ing, and all were still in winter dress, 
The only other species observed here was that cosmopolitan, 
the Common Sandpiper. 
February 21st.—Came on during night and anchored inside 
the great lagoon of Aucuttee. The barrier reef is somewhat 
shoulder-of-mutton shaped, the knuckle to the south, with Aucut- 
tee itself in the middle of tha knuckle, and two small uninha- 
bited islands, Bingaroo and Tingaroo, towards the edge of the- 
blade at the N. E. corner. The barrier reef is high and strong- 
ly marked on the N., N. E., and more than half the eastern side, 
and here I think some points remain uncovered even at high 
tide; elsewhere it is much lower—much of it never becoming 
bare even at low water, and being pierced with broad deep 
ship channels in several places. 
We first went northwards to a small sand-bank half way 
between our anchorage and Tingareo, and there saw a few 
Turnstones and a single S. Bergu. 
