230 



THE OPAL SEA 



Land birds 

 at sea quite 

 helpless. 



Equipment 

 i/f the 

 true sea 

 wanderer. 



But the finches and warblers were never de- 

 signed for the watery waste. Even the snipes 

 and the sand pipers, with the whole tribe of 

 beach and shore birds, were given no more than 

 a limited equipment for ocean travel. They 

 belong to the land. That is, they skirt the 

 coast, beat along the breakers, perhaps cruise 

 out to sea for a day; but they go back to the 

 shore at night. They weary when the sun goes 

 down, and like Noah's dove keep returning to 

 what they regard as home. They must have 

 a resting place for the sole of the foot. 



Nature when she planned the bird life of the 

 open sea builded better than that. Above all 

 she planned for endurance — endurance of cold, 

 wind, storm, hunger. And she eliminated the 

 homing instinct and made many of the wave 

 wanderers for solitude. Domesticity on the 

 land for a few weeks was given them only for 

 breeding purposes. For the rest of the time 

 they were destined to be the true ocean waifs, 

 traveling alone hither and yon, always songless 

 and sometimes voiceless, with eyes seldom clos- 

 ing in sleep, and with wings seldom folding in 

 rest. 



The make-up of the sea bird is, indeed, re- 

 markable and yet not extraordinary. It is no 

 more than the expected; and is only another 



