SEA-BIRDS. 29 



cal works of the fixed stars arranged in the Ptolemaic 

 system in a crowded circle around the sun and planets. 

 If you attend only to those near you, they seem to 

 rush on in one direction in an unceasing stream ; and 

 you wonder what can be the purpose, and what the 

 terminus, of the universal migration ; but when your 

 eye has followed them a little, you perceive the cir- 

 cular movement, that the same birds pass before you 

 again and again, as they come round in their turn, 

 like the movers in a theatrical procession, that cross 

 the stage and pass round behind the scenes to swell 

 the array again. 



But the earth and the air are not the only spheres 

 occupied by these birds : look down on the sea ; its 

 shining face is strewn, as far as you can discern any- 

 thing, with minute black specks, associated in flocks 

 or groups, some comprising few, others countless in- 

 dividuals. These, too, are the birds, busily employed 

 in fishing for the supply of their mates and young, or 

 resting calmly on the swelling undulation. 



The fearlessness manifested by those that are sitting 

 around us, permits us to observe them at leisure. 

 They are principally of two kinds ; the smaller has a 

 round large head, with a beak monstrously deep and 

 high, but thin and knife-like ; and as if to make this 

 organ more conspicuous, it is painted with red, blue, 

 and yellow. The legs and large webbed feet are 

 orange-coloured ; and these, too, are sufficiently 

 remarkable in flight, for the bird stretches them out 

 behind, somewhat expanded at the same time, in such 



