Fish skipped over the clear calm water; and above, pelicans--the younger brown, the older gray-- wheeled round and round in lordly flight, paused, gave a sudden half-turn, then fell into the water with widespread wings, and after a splash, rose with another skipjack in their pouch.

As it grew dark, dark things came trooping over the sea, by twos and threes, then twenty at a time, all past us toward a cave near by.

Birds we fancied them at first, of the colour and size of starlings; but they proved to be bats, and bats, too, which have the reputation of catching fish.

So goes the tale, believed by some who see them continually, and have a keen eye for nature; and who say that the bat sweeps the fish up off the top of the water with the scoop-like membrane of his hind-legs and tail.

For this last fact I will not vouch.