THE DUCK.This bird belongs to the order of Natatores, or Swimmers; the most familiar tribes of which are ducks, swans, geese, auks, penguins, petrels, pelicans, guillemots, gulls, and terns.

When storms on the rocky cliffs beat, then the terns, icy-feathered, Made answer; full oft the sea eagle forebodingly screamed, The eagle with pinions wave-wet....

Beside these small surf gulls, never at all numerous, I usually saw a few terns, and now and then one or two rather large gulls, which, as well as I could make out, must have been the ring-billed.

It was a strange beach, I thought, where fish-hawks invariably outnumbered both gulls and terns.

Next in number to the flamingoes were the beautiful white gulls (or terns?), looking strangely out of place in this Andean lake 11,500 feet above the sea.

* 35 troll cel' er y new' fan gled thatch chink' ing as par' a gus im mense' sauce' pan de mol' ish ing sa' vor y pat' terns ag' gra va ting THE MINNOWS WITH SILVER TAILS.

Thousands and thousands of them perch and chatter on the rocks and fly screaming in the air, amongst them being guillemots, kittiwakes, gulls, terns, cormorants, puffins, and eider-ducks, for which latter St. Cuthbert is said to have had great affection; certainly they are the gentlest of these wild sea-fowl.

Excepting the sea-fowl, which consisted of geese, wild ducks, teals, curlews, divers, sea-pies, gulls, and terns, very few birds were seen, and those chiefly of the parrot and cockatoo tribe; a species of the latter was noticed of a rich black plumage, and very like the black cockatoo of New South Wales.

We passed forests of palms that extended for leagues, and vast marshy meadows, where storks, herons, and ibis were gathered, with flocks of cormorants and darters on the sand-bars, and stilts, skimmers, and clouds of beautiful swaying terns in the foreground.

Wednesday, May 17.Yesterday it rained without ceasing, until the valley in front of us took the appearance of a lakeA party of terns, white above and with black breasts, skirled and wrangled over the "casual" water.

CHAPTER XXXI GULLS AND TERNS AT HOME Canada GooseAmerican Herring GullCommon TernLoonPied-billed Grebe.

Or else those great Cannibal Birds, the Wise Watchers, who eat the flesh of their smaller brothers, as well as of rats, mice, and all such verminthe Hawks and Owls; or else they are Gulls, Terns, Fishing Ducks, and a great many other kinds of sea birds who feed on fish and pick up the scraps floating on the surface of sea, lake, and river.

The larger ones are Herring Gulls, and the smaller ones are Terns.

Both Gulls and Terns nest on Gull Island, where Olaf is going to take us some day when the water is smooth.

"Yes, the Terns or Sea Swallows that you have seen about the reef nest there also; and this island, as well as the mainland near by, is a favorite stopping-place for all the shore and water birds in their journeys,from Sandpipers to great flocks of Sea Ducks.

Neither Gulls nor Terns can dive far under water like Ducks, for their bodies are too light; but they all pounce down on wing and contrive to catch small fish swimming just below the surface.

Terns are the better flyers, but Gulls are decidedly the more expert swimmers.

" "It would be if they were obliged to stay; but both Gulls and Terns scatter all over the country to winter, though the Terns travel much further south.

The hallux, or hind toe, of this bird appears to be more closely united to the fore toes, and to be situated more in front than is usual among the Terns: it is also to be observed, that the side of the nail of the middle toe is considerably dilated, although not serrated, similar to what is observed among the Pelecanidae.

These characters offer a corroboration of the affinity of the Sternae to the family of the Pelecanidae, and particularly to the genus Phaeton, which approaches the Terns more closely than any other group of that family, in the smaller size of the membrane that unites the toes (see Linnean Transactions 14 505).

During the day we passed within fifteen miles of the Lively's reef, and from the numbers of terns and other small seabirds, seen for the last three days, there can be little doubt of its whereabouts being known, and that during that time we had been in the neighbourhood of other reefs still undiscovered.

We named this Bird Island, from finding it almost covered with terns and gulls.

The fish were attended by flocks of terns and noddies, the former the beautiful Sterna melanauchen.

As the ship went along she raised prodigious numbers of flying-fish in large schools, closely watched by frigate-birds, boobies, and terns.

On the following day the Bramble* left us for Booby Island, to call at the post office there, and rejoin company at Cape York, and we reached as far as the neighbourhood of Coconut Island at noon, passing close to Arden Island, then covered with prodigious numbers of blue and white herons, small terns, curlews, and other waders.