Miscellaneous 395 



of sails by steam, will soon as a class know the fussy 

 homely Booby no more. 



About the et ceteras I have my doubts. One 

 class of birdsj which I do not possess sufficient 

 acquaintance with to make them the subject of a 

 separate chapter, I am leaving to the end of this chapter. 

 I allude to that curious tribe, the Penguins. But of 

 other truly deep-sea birds there are really none. The 

 great gull tribe in any of its varieties never venture 

 far from land in the comparative sense, the petrels 

 deserved (and have got) a section to themselves. Even 

 essentially land birds are often found at tremendous 

 distances from the shore, having been whirled away 

 most unwillingly from their course while journeying 

 from winter to summer lands, which would never 

 happen to sea-birds whose habits keep them in daily 

 touch with the land. Nay, and I do not think any 

 apology is needed for introducing the matter here, I 

 have actually seen, not once but several times, flutter- 

 ing about a ship becalmed in the centre of the broad 

 Atlantic, an ephemeral butterfly. The sight set all 

 hands a-wondering whence the pretty waif could have 

 strayed so far, and some even broached the idea that 

 the chrysalis from which it came had lodged on board 

 in some convenient but inconspicuous place, and had 

 just been hatched out. But they were, as I think, 

 very properly laughed out of court. In mid-ocean 

 too, I have seen, and that where even the strenuous 

 gulls did not appear, a little flight of swallows board the 

 ship, as a haven of rest in the midst of the wide and 

 to them inhospitable sea. I shall not soon or easily 

 forget how, coming weary and hungry from the 

 wheel one morning at 2 a.m., I went to the bread- 

 barge, which hung from a beam in the forecastle 

 for fear of the rats which swarmed among us, and found 



