m -
a “ trammel” net across the outlet while the tide was ebbing, and
in this way entrapped great quantities of mullet and mackerel ;
sometimes upwards of eighty, ranging in weight from two to
eleven pounds per fish, being taken at one haul.
I collected some green flocculcnt matter from the surface of
one of these lagoons, and found it to consist almost entirely of
diatoms.
. One fine day in April we noticed a great concourse of gulls
and shags, attracted by a shoal of fish, in the pursuit of which
they ventured unusually close to the ship. This gave us an
opportunity of observing that the common brown gull of the
channels, the female of L. Dominicanus, behaves towards the male
bird in many respects like a skua. No sooner would one of the
“ black-backed” (male) birds capture a fish, and rise from the
surface, than he would be attacked by one of the brown birds,
and chased vigorously about the harbour ; the predatory bird not
desisting from the pursuit until the coveted prize had been dropped
by its rightful owner. This I noticed on more occasions than one.
As a rule, however, the female was content to fish for herself
Several Dominican gulls in immature plumage wmre seen amongst
the crowd, and were easily distinguished from the adults by the
mottled brown plumage, and by the colour of the mandibles being
green instead of orange, as in the males, and black as in the
females. Now and then the whole flock of gulls and shags would
rise on the wing, as they lost the run of the shoal of fish.
They would then be directed to the new position of the shoal by
the success of some straggling bird, when a general rush would
be made to the new hunting ground. It was most amusing to
witness the widely different fishing powers of the shags and gulls,
and the consequently unequal competition in the struggle for food.
The shag in flight, on observing a fish beneath him, at once
checks himself by presenting the concave side of his wings to the
direction in which he has been moving, and then, flapping legs
foremost into the water, turns and dives ; whereas the gull has