FOOD FOR SEA-BIRDS. 405 



scattered, but flying as compactly and as close as the free 

 movement of their wings will allow, and passing for a full 

 hour or more with a swiftness little inferior to that of a 

 Pigeon. On these data, it has been calculcated that the 

 number in such a flight would amount to one hundred and 

 fifty-one million five hundred thousand birds ! about one-fifth of 

 the whole population of the 

 globe. These birds live 

 and breed in burrows ; and 

 the number of burrows re- 

 quired to lodge such a flock 

 would not be far short of 

 seventy-six millions ; and 

 allowing a square yard for 

 each burrow, the space 



covered would be some- The Petrel, 



thing more than twenty-four and a half square miles, or nearly 

 fifteen thousand six hundred and eighty acres of ground ! 



And though in such cheerless solitudes, man would soon 

 perish for w r ant of sustenance, living food seems to be placed 

 there by Providence to a greater extent than in any other 

 known parts of the habitable globe. Countless as are the 

 myriads of these birds, still more countless, by millions and 

 millions of figures, are the lesser marine beings on which they 

 feed. Some idea may be formed of their abundance by 

 calculating the length of time that would be requisite for a 

 certain number of persons to count the quantity contained in 

 one square mile of sea-water. Allowing that one person could 

 count a million in seven days, which is barely possible, it has 

 been calculated that no less than eighty thousand persons 

 should have started nearly six thousand years ago to complete 

 the calculation to the present time ! And if, passing beyond 

 the consideration of the actual numbers, we reflect that each 

 of these minute beings has not only life, but a body wonderfully 

 made, with instincts and senses peculiar to each how infinitely 

 beyond the power of our imagination to conceive, is that great 

 and overruling Power, who hath measured the waters in the 

 hollow of His hand, and meted out the heavens with a span. 



