TRIUMPH OF THE WING. 

 THE FRIGATE BIRD. 



LET us not attempt to particularize all the 

 intermediate gradations. Let us proceed to yonder 

 snow-white bird, which I perceive floating on high 

 among the clouds; the bird which one sees every where 

 on the water, on land, on rocks alternately concealed 

 and exposed by the waves ; the bird which one loves 

 to watch, familiar as it is, and greedy, and which 

 might well be named " the little vulture of the seas." 

 I speak of those myriads of petrels, or gulls, with 

 whose hoarse cries every waste resounds. Find me, if 

 you can, creatures endowed with fuller liberty. Day 

 and night, south or north, sea or shore, dead prey or 

 living, all is one to them. Using everything, at home everywhere, 

 they indifferently display their white sails from the waves to the 

 heaven ; the fresh breeze, ever shifting and changing, is the boun- 

 teous wind which always blows in the direction they most desire. 



