212 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



Although there are birds which may, and probably 

 do, attain to the speed of one hundred and fifty miles 

 an hour, this remarkable rate is not to be looked for 

 in any of the birds of the swallow kind. There is 

 something fascinating in the idea of eliminating time 

 and space, and with this attribute popular fancy has 

 in some measure clothed the swallows. And at the 

 greater rate of speed indicated above, the swallow 

 might, as has been stated, breakfast round the 

 Barbican and take its midday siesta in Algiers. 

 This, however, is a popular myth. In their migra- 

 tions swallows stick close to land and never leave 

 it unless compelled; they cross straits at the narrowest 

 part, and are among the most fatiguable of birds. 

 From this it will be seen that, although swallows 

 may possess great speed, they have no great powers 

 of sustained flight or endurance. These attributes 

 belong, in the most marked degree, to several ocean 

 birds. 



Anyone who has crossed the Atlantic must have 

 noticed that gulls accompany the ship over the 

 whole distance, or, at least, are never absent 

 throughout the voyage. The snowy " sea-swallows," 

 as the terns are called, seem quite tireless on the 

 wing, though the petrels and albatross alone deserve 

 the name of oceanic birds. No sea deserts seem to 

 bound the range of the petrels, and they are found at 

 every distance from land. Different species inhabit 



