78 RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 



latitude 40 north and longitude 48 west, about 920 miles 

 from land.* But a still more extraordinary instance, both as 

 regards distance from land and situation, is that of a common 

 Titlark (Alauda pratensis) having alighted on board a vessel 

 from Liverpool, in latitude 47 4' south, longitude 43 19' 

 west, in Sept. 1825, at a distance of at least 1300 miles from 

 the nearest main land of South America, and about 900 from 

 the wild and barren island of Georgia. The poor little 

 traveller was taken, and brought back to Liverpool, where it 

 was seen by Dr. Traill, one of our most eminent naturalists. 

 An Owl has been also seen gliding over the midst of the 

 Atlantic Ocean, with as much apparent ease as if it had been 

 seeking for mice amongst its native fields. To the distant 

 voyages of this bird, we can indeed bear our testimony, when 

 sailing in the Mediterranean. At daylight a brown Owl was 

 observed on the main-top-gallant yard, and secured by an 

 active sailor : for three or four days it was detained, but as it 

 appeared to pine, it was again turned adrift. At first it 

 seemed bewildered, but after wheeling round the ship twice 

 or thrice, it steered, direct as an arrow from a bow, for the 

 nearest land, distant about eighty miles. 



We cannot, after this, be surprised to hear, that certain 

 seafaring birds are constantly found at a thousand miles, or 

 often at greater distances, from land. Three of the most 

 remarkable of these wild wanderers are the Albatross (Dio~ 

 medea exulans), the Tropic-Bird (Phaeton Phcenicurus), 

 and the Frigate-Bird (Tachypetes aquila). The first of 

 these, the Albatross, the largest of the aquatic tribe, with 

 plumage of the most delicate white, except the back and tops 

 of its wings, which are of a dark grey, floats in the air, borne 

 up by a vast expanse of wing, measuring fourteen feet, or 

 even more, from tip to tip. The air and the water, indeed, 

 seem to be far more natural to it than the land, where it is 

 so helpless, owing to its enormous length of wing, which 

 prevents it from rising, unless it can launch itself from a 

 steep precipice or projecting rock, that it is completely at the 



* Foster's North America, vol. i. 



