36 
A VOYAGE TO 
1776. throat; and the under-ftde of the quill-feathers were of an 
alli-colour. All the other feathers were jet black, as alfo the 
bill and legs. 
Tuefday s. On the 8th, in the evening, one of thofe birds which 
failors call noddies, fettled on our rigging, and was caught. 
It was fomething larger than an Englifh black-bird, and 
nearly as black, except the upper part of the head, which 
was white, looking as if it were powdered; the whiteft fea¬ 
thers growing out from the bafe of the upper bill, from 
which they gradually aflumed a darker colour, to about the 
middle of the upper part of the neck, where the white fhade 
was loft in the black, without being divided by any line. 
It was web-footed; had black legs and a black bill, w r hich 
was long, and not unlike that of a curlew. It is faid theie 
birds never fly far from land. We knew of none nearer the 
ftation we were in, than Gough’s or Richmond Ifland, from 
which our diftance could not be lefs than one hundred 
leagues. But it muft be obferved that the Atlantic Ocean, 
to the Southward of this latitude, has been but little fre¬ 
quented ; fo that there may be more iflands there than we 
are acquainted with. . x 
We frequently, in the night, faw thofe luminous ma¬ 
rine animals mentioned and defcribed in my firft voyage A 
Some of them feemed to be conflderably larger than any I 
had before met with; and fometimes they were fo nume¬ 
rous, that hundreds were viflble at the fame moment. 
This calm weather was fucceeded by a frefh gale from 
the North Weft, which lafted two days. Then we had 
again variable light airs for about twenty-four hours ; when 
the North Weft wind returned, and blew with fuch ftrength, 
* See Hawkefworth’s Collection of Voyages, Vol. II. p. 15. 
that 
