WADING BIKDS. 



249 



here to-day, gone to-morrow ; one week skimming the 

 waters that skirt the sunny shores of Florida, the next 

 seeking their food on the spongy verdant uplands of 

 Labrador : in the former wakened from their reveries or 

 slumbers by the approach of the stealthy alligator or 

 clumsy turtle, in the latter by the deep growl of the 

 Arctic bear, or the sudden dash into their ranks of the 

 stealthy blue fox. Then the scenes they see, traversing 

 the ocean the overfreighted ship toiling in the surging 

 storm, the taut-rigged coaster or pilot vessel laying to, to 

 wait for the war of the elements to cease ; the giant steam- 

 boat, regardless of wind or weather, cleaving with scorn 

 the mountain billows that oppose her course, or, more to 

 my taste still, the white wings of numerous crafts lazily 

 flapping against their spars, while the anxious skipper 

 earnestly looks for the semblance of a breeze, or super- 

 stitiously whistles with the hope of producing one. 



AMEEICAN CURLEW. 



