SEPT. 1768 DAGYS/Z 3 
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 Linneus; 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 Richmond employed in searching for what should 
appear on the surface of the water; a shoal of Dagyse 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 Dagyse of different kinds, among which two 
entirely new ones were taken (rostrata and strwmosa), 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 
