1894
April 15
(No 2)
At sea off Sombrero and to the northward.
full headway the tail invariably assumed a horizontal
position, streaming out behind most graceful in an
exact line with the body. [diagram]
All of these Tropic Birds which passed sufficiently near
the steamer to enable me to distinguish colors with
certainty had the bill of a bright coral red.

  Off  Sombrero Key I saw upwards of fifty Terns with
brown backs and white underparts, evidently either
Sooty or Bridled Terns. They were hovering in an
excited throng over a spot where some large fish
were breaking and kept plunging down, one after another,
in quick succession, precisely as our New England Terns
[delete] pl [/delete] hover and plunge over a school of blue fish.

  There were also a good many small Puffini, P. auduboni
doubtless, about Sombrero and between this island and
St. Eustacious.

  Ten or fifteen miles to the northward of Sombrero
I observed, for the first time, half-a-dozen
or more Wilson's Petrels following the wake of our
steamer. They kept so closely under the stern
that it is possible that they may have been
with us ever since they first joined us in the
channel between Trinidad and Granada but I
do not think that this has really been the case.

  We had a fine sunset, the sea very calm, with
three shining pathways radiating from the ship towards
as many white clouds low down in the East from which
the light was reflected - a phenomenon new to me.