106 



TRIUMPH OF THE WING. 



On looking at him closely, you perceive that he has no feet. Or at 

 all events, feet which being palmate and exceedingly shoi-t, can neither 

 walk nor perch. With a formidable beak, he has not the talons of a 

 true eagle of the sea. A pseudo-eagle, and superior to the true in 

 his daring as in his powers of flight, he has not, however, his 

 strength, his invincible grasp. He strikes and slays: can he seize? 



Thence arises his life of uncertainty and hazard — the life of a 

 corsair and a pirate rather than of a mariner — and the fixed inquiry 



ever legible on his countenance: "Shall I feed? Shall I have 

 wherewithal to nourish my little ones this evening? " 



The immense and superb apparatus of his wings becomes on land 



