214 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



ceaseless flight it would seem as though earth and 

 sea were equally prohibited to him. To a bird with 

 such immense and superior wing apparatus, the 

 metaphor, " he sleeps upon the storm," almost 

 becomes literal. This black, solitary bird is nearly 

 nothing more than wings, his prodigious pinions 

 measuring fifteen feet, and even surpassing those of 

 the condor of the Andes. Although sometimes seen 

 four hundred leagues from land, the frigate bird is 

 said to return every night to its solitary roost. 

 But these birds and the wandering albatross are sea 

 and ocean species, and, with rare exceptions, are 

 able to rest upon the waters. This, however, cannot 

 be said of many of the land birds, and here observa- 

 tion is easier. 



Thousands of goldcrests annually cross and recross 

 the North Sea at the wildest period of the year, and, 

 unless the weather is rough, generally make their 

 migrations in safety. And yet this is the smallest 

 and frailest British bird a mere fluff of feathers, 

 and weighing only seventy grains. Another of the 

 tits, the oxeye, has been met upon two occasions at 

 six hundred and nine hundred miles from land. 

 With regard to those birds which cross the Atlantic, 

 it matters not for our purpose whether they are 

 driven by stress of weather or cross voluntarily 

 suffice it they come. The American passenger 

 pigeon accomplishes the distance, and so does the 



