nest."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE CORAL REEF.

JOHNNY AND THE CHAMA--AMATEUR PEARL-DIVING--A SHARK BLOCKADE--CULINARY
GENIUS.

"Down in the depths of the lonely sea,
I work at my mystic masonry;
I've crusted the plants of the deep with stone,
And given them colouring not their own;
And now o'er the ocean fields they spread
Their fan-like branches of white and red:
Oh! who can fashion a work like me,
The mason of God, in the boundless sea."

Late in the afternoon, when the slanting beams of the sun began to lose
their fierceness, and the heat was tempered by the breeze setting in
from the ocean, we descended to the beach, and set out for the eastern
side of the island, in accordance with Arthur's suggestion, mentioned at
the close of the last chapter. As we made our way across Sea-bird's
Point, the clamorous cries of the gannets, raising their harsh voices to
the highest pitch, in angry remonstrance against this invasion of their
domain, were almost deafening. They might well be alarmed for the
safety of their nests--or rather of their eggs, which they lay upon the
bare ground, without any attempt at a nest--for they strewed the whole
point so thickly that it was no easy matter to pick one's way without
treading upon them at every alternate step. In nearly every tree were
to be seen the rude nests of the frigate-bird, built of a few coarse
sticks; and numbers of the birds themselves, with their singular
blood-red pouches inflated to the utmost extent, were flying in from the
sea. The large sooty tern, the graceful tropic bird, and the spruce,
fierce-looking man-of-war's hawk, with his crimson bill, and black
flashing eye, flew familiarly around us, frequently coming so near, that
we could easily have knocked them down with our cutlasses, had we been
inclined to abuse, so wantonly, the confidence which they seemed to
repose in us.

When half-way across the point, I came suddenly upon a magnificent male
tropic bird, sitting in his nest behind a tussock of tall, reedy grass.
He did not offer to quit his post, even when the others approached very
near, and paused to admire him; being apparently engaged, in the absence
of his mate, in attending to certain domestic duties, generally supposed
to belong more appropriately to her. He was somewhat larger than a
pigeon, and was a very beautiful bird, though not so brilliantly
coloured as several other species of sea-fowl. His plumage, soft and
lust