SOME NOTES ON LAND-BIRDS 19 



ing fish and plankton seem general; one sea snake, yellow- 

 black back with black bars ; also a saw-fish was seen. 



July 8th. — Cebu to Ilo Ilo by the southern route. When 

 some 40 miles from Cebu, passing down Bohol Strait, keep- 

 ing close to the coast of Cebu, saw several schools, 8 to 

 10 in each, of some small whale, general colour plumbeous 

 black; head blunt and rounded; dorsal fin, rounded and not 

 falcate. These whales lay huddled together on the surface, 

 occasionally swimming if the ship passed too close. I am 

 unable to identify them, except they were G seiboldi. 



July 13th. — Ilo Ilo to Ningpo. Left port at sunset last 

 night, and passing through the Islands but little was seen. 

 A few shoals of flying fish rose occasionally and included both 

 large and small fry. And a few booby — general colour 

 brown. 



July 14th. — Being 16 miles off Kapones Island. Light 

 northerly airs and very fine. Flying fish rose up now and 

 again. And a few boobies — brown coloured birds. A small 

 school of whale were passed, these lying asleep close 

 together ; my attention was attracted to them by seeing some- 

 thing glisten in the sunlight. A closer examination showed 

 some to be piebald others nearly pure cream white, dorsal fins 

 were black in some and with others it was only partly black ; 

 the dorsal fin was also extremely long, narrow and falcate. 

 Head rounded and blunt. Length about 10 feet. The dorsal 

 on account of its length was most distinct. Mostly these 

 were black, but piebald fins were seen in either piebald or 

 pure white animals. I did not see a pure white dorsal fin. 



July 15th.— Lat. 19-12' N., Long. 118-58' E. Light 

 N.N.W. airs and calms. Very fine and clear. At daybreak 

 a few brown plumaged booby following the shoals of fish. 

 Flying fish plentiful amongst which I saw a few of large 

 size. Most of the shoals were composed of very small fry. 

 A dark coloured butterfly flew on board this afternoon. 

 Later saw quite a number of booby, upper parts dusky 

 brown, under parts white. These were mostly seen bunched 

 together on the surface and flying away if the ship ap- 

 proached too close. I saw an enormous shoal of very small 

 flying fish rise up, they were peculiar, in the manner in 

 which they rose very high into the air, and then falling nearly 

 vertically almost directly afterwards. As I had my bino- 

 culars in my hand at the time I had a good view, in fact 

 they were not very far away, so that there can be no 

 question that they were flying fish. This shoal must have 

 contained very many thousands, it was in fact the very largest 

 shoal of flying fish I have ever seen. Passed through many 

 tidal rips and a strong smell of ozone present this evening, 

 very little gulf weed seen to-day. 



