appearance and is often inconspicuous. Hubbard, who has 
been in the bows of the steamer and who has seen Flying Fish 
very much nearer than those which I have been watching, 
confirms much of the above. He thinks that four or five 
strokes of the wings are usually given when the fish first 
starts or when it wishes to rise above a wave, and that it 
sails most of the time. 
The trade wind increased during the afternoon, 
kicking up a lumpy sea which made our ship pitch and roll 
more than was agreeable to some of the more sensitive 
passengers, but still the tables at dinner showed only a 
more 
few empty seats. The clouds were/numerous than yesterday, 
but the sky was at no time completely overcast. There 
were fewer Flying Fish than during the forenoon. 
When I first went on deck this morning an exclamation 
from several of the paaaengers attracted my attention to a 
bird which seemed to be just rising from the water, about 
500 yards from the steamer. It looked about as large as a 
Pigeon and flew very like one, flapping the wings quickly 
and steadily as it mounted in a spiral course and made off 
to the westward, circling until out of sight. Its nearly 
white color and the long, slender tail feathers enabled me 
to recognize it at once as a Tropic Bird, my first. I had 
expected a more Tern-like flight but the resemblance to the 
flight of a Pigeon was so marked that several of the other 
