RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 79 



so as to skim along and catch the flying-fish with its hawk-like 

 bill or talons, or both together. So averse are they, in fact, to 

 diving, or even touching the water, that, instead of dashing 

 downwards head foremost, like the Gannet and other diving 

 birds, the Frigate-bird holds its neck and feet in a horizontal 

 direction. Striking the upper column of air with its wings, 

 then raising and closing them one against the other above its 

 back, it darts on the flying-fish with such skill and certainty as 

 almost invariably to ensure success. 



Most travellers who have visited Constantinople by the 

 passage of the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora may have 

 noticed a bird not quite so large as a Pigeon, abundant in that 

 neighbourhood, though occasionally seen in other parts of the 

 Archipelago, as at Napoli and Vourla, which must have excited 

 their curiosity and surprise. "Every day," says one of the 

 many authors who have noticed it, " they are to be seen in 

 numerous flocks passing up and down the Bosphorus with great 

 rapidity. When they arrive either at the Black Sea or Sea of 

 Marmora, they again wheel about and return up the channel, and 

 this course they continue, without a moment's intermission, the 

 whole day. They are never seen to alight either on land or 

 water ; they never for a moment deviate from their course or 

 slacken their speed ; are never known to search for or take any 

 food ; and no visible cause can be assigned for the extraordinary 

 and restless instinct by which they are haunted. They fly 

 very near the surface of the water ; and if a boat meets a flock 

 of them, they either rise a few feet over it, or it divides them 

 like a wedge. Their flight is remarkably silent, and though 

 so numerous and so close, the whirr of their wings is scarcely 

 ever heard. They are so abundant in the Sea of Marmora that 

 near twenty flocks have been counted in the passage of a few 

 miles. One reason why they have escaped the close attention 

 of naturalists is, that no person is permitted to kill any bird 

 upon the Bosphorus without incurring the displeasure of th 

 Turks, who, although very indifferent as to the lives of human 

 beings, are extremely averse to take away the lives of animals." * 

 * WALSH'S Constantinople. See also Sketches in Greect. 



