THE SEAGULL 



SO glorious is the flight of the seagull that 

 it tempts us to fling aside the dry-as-dust 

 theories of mechanism of flexed wings, co- 

 efficient of air resistance, and all the 

 abracadabra of the mathematical biologist, 

 and just to give thanks for a sight so 

 inspiring as that of gulls ringing high in the 

 eye of the wind over hissing combers that 

 break on sloping beaches or around jagged 

 rocks. These birds are one with the sea, know- 

 ing no fear of that protean monster which, 

 since earth's beginning, has always, with its 

 unfathomable mystery, its insatiable cruelty, 

 its tremendous strength, been a source of 

 terror to the land animals that dwell in sight 

 of it. Yet the gulls sit on the curling rollers 

 as much at their ease as swimmers in a pond, 

 and give an impression of unconscious cour- 

 age very remarkable in creatures that seem 

 so frail. Hunger may drive them inland, or 

 instincts equally irresistible at the breeding 

 season, but never the worst gale that lashes 

 the sea to fury, for they dread it in its hour 

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