30 BIRD WORLD. 



said to each other, '" Gull Dick' is getting old. This 

 may be his last winter with us." 



They gave him all the food he wanted, for he seemed 

 very hungry. All through the winter he came regu- 

 larly for his meals, driving off the other Gulls if they 

 came too near his food. The crew fed him for the 

 last time early in April ; the next day he doubtless 

 started for the north, but what happened to him there 

 no one knows. Old age, or a fierce storm, may have 

 carried him off, or perhaps another bird attacked 

 him ; at any rate, he failed to return in the. fall, and 

 the men in the lightship have lost their pet, " Gull 

 Dick." 



TO A WATERFOWL. 



Whither, 'midst falling dew, 

 While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, 

 Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue 



Thy solitary way ? 



Vainly the fowler's eye 

 Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 

 As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, 



Thy figure floats along. 



Seek 'st thou the plashy brink 

 Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide. 

 Or where the rocking billows rise and sink 



On the chafed ocean side } 



Bryant. 



