had fallen upon my ears unnoted at the time; yet 

 somehow it had crept into my consciousness im- 

 pinging itself vaguely, dimly upon my memory. 

 Suddenly alive to the realization of its meaning, 

 I looked about, straining to hear its repetition, the 

 exactness of its whereabouts. 



At the same instant the search-light was directed 

 forward; a moment more and the brilliant beam 

 picked up a small black object floating on the sur- 

 face less than a hundred feet away. As we pulled 

 toward this oddity it made an ineffectual attempt 

 to rise from the water and revealed itself as a bird. 

 Then it was that I distinguished the cause of the 

 occasional subtle sounds which finally made them- 

 selves felt, as well as heard, in the absorbing si- 

 lence of the night. It was not until we were well 

 upon the bird that I was certain of its kind; al- 

 though to me the sight of these sable cripples was 

 not exactly new. It was a glaucus-gull ; its identity 

 was betrayed only by its beak; the remainder of its 

 body was coated with pitch. 



The fatigue of the bird was apparent. Despite 

 its efforts to swim away when the dinghy neared 

 it, we were easily able to overtake it. Nor could a 

 more painful attempt at flying be imagined; its 



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