Song Birds and Water Fowl 
length of three and a half feet, found hundreds 
of miles out to sea, and said by Audubon to be 
the swiftest of all birds in the world. I can- 
not more appropriately close this résumé of 
water fowl than by quoting from this enthusi- 
astic writer a fine description of this strange 
and beautiful species. ‘‘ When the morning 
light gladdens the face of Nature, and while 
the warblers are yet waiting in silence the first 
rays of the sun, whose appearance they will 
hail with joy, the frigate bird on extended 
pinions sails from his roosting place. ‘Toward 
the vast deep he moves, rising apace, and, be- 
fore any other bird, views the bright orb 
emerge from the waters. Pure is the azure of 
the heavens, and rich the deep green of the 
smooth sea below; and now the glad bird 
shakes his pinions, and far up into the air, far 
beyond the reach of man’s unaided eye, he 
soars in his quiet but rapid flight. There he 
floats in the pure air, but thither can fancy 
alone follow him. But now I see him again, 
with half-closed wings, gently falling tow- 
ard the sea. He pauses awhile, and again 
dives through the air. Thrice, four times, has 
he gradually approached the surface of the 
ocean. Now he shakes his pinions, then sweeps 
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