noon
These paroquets were the only land-birds we saw during the day . Max pronounced them `` frights , '' because of their large hooked bills , and harsh discordant cries . They certainly gave Johnny , a terrible `` fright , '' and indeed startled us all a little , by suddenly taking wing , with loud , hoarse screams , from a hibiscus , beneath which we were resting , without having observed that they were perched over our heads . When it was near noon , and we had travelled , as we supposed , making allowance for delays and deviations , some six or eight miles , the character of the shore suddenly changed . The white , shelving beach , and the dense groves meeting it near the water , now disappeared , and were succeeded by an open strip of land , bordering the lagoon , strewed with huge , irregular fragments of coral rock , and seamed with gullies . The line of the forest here receded some distance from the shore , leaving a broad rounded point , embracing a large area of low and barren ground , covered thinly with a growth of stunted shrubs , and a few straggling , solitary looking trees . The lagoon was at this point quite shallow , and low rocks and coral patches appeared above the surface , at short distances apart , nearly to the centre of the channel .