Mr. 0. Salvin on the Sea-birds of British Honduras. 381 
coloured throat-pouclies, vanish behind the tree as one ap¬ 
proaches too close. The whole afternoon was taken up with 
skinning a series of the different plumages of the Booby and the 
few small birds I had secured; but just before sunset I again 
walked round the island to watch the Boobies returning to 
roost from their fishing-grounds. They came trooping back in 
flocks of twenty or thirty, the greater portion from windward, 
and flying at a dashing pace. They did not settle at once, but 
kept sailing round and round till after sunset. While watching 
them, I recognized a single immature bird of the common species 
n/ (Sula fiber), its browner throat enabling me to detect it. I 
saw no others there, but afterwards at sea several flew round the 
schooner. Having pretty well finished the day's work, we slung 
our hammocks in the rigging, and slept soundly till dawn. 
May 10th.—Remembering the Terns we had left the previous 
day about the old snags on the reef, I returned in the schooner 
to Saddle Cay, shooting a specimen of Thalasseus acuflavidus by 
the way. At Saddle Cay we found a fresh arrival of Terns and 
Laughing Gulls [Larus atricilla :). The former all belonged to 
v" a second species of Sooty Tern (Haliplana panaya) . No time 
had been lost by the Terns, for on searching the Cay we found 
four eggs had already been laid. A little sand was scratched 
away for a nest, under such shelter as the bushes that grew 
nearest the beach afforded. This Haliplana is known to the 
Creoles as the “ Rocky Bird." It is a very graceful species, 
though its flight is rather heavy for a Tern, not having the 
same dash about it that so strikes one on watching its congener 
H . fuliginosa. The eggs are rather less ruddy and smaller than 
those of the commoner species, but similar in other respects. 
There was nothing more to be done now at Lighthouse Reef 
beyond replenishing our stock of wood and water, which occu¬ 
pied the remainder of the afternoon. Fresh water, such as it is, 
may always be obtained on these Cays by digging a hole in the 
sand some distance from the beach, andthen buryingatub with the 
ends knocked out to keep the sides of the hole from falling in. 
In the course of a few hours water filters through, which at first 
has but a slightly brackish flavour. This increases as the water 
stands, till it becomes too strongly impregnated with salt to 
