92 i STRUCTURE AND COMPARISON. 



little as he wheels about the circle, which will once more bring 

 him breast to the wind. Hawks are among our best soaring 

 land-birds; but some sea-birds excel all others in the sport, 

 wheeling about hour after hour on motionless pinions, keeping 

 their course and their elevation entirely by some slight adjust- 

 ment of the body or by an inclination of the tail. Sailors 

 declare that an albatross will follow a ship for days together, 

 circling above her without rest. It is certain that on moon- 

 light nights the man-of-war bird may be ,seen for hours to- 

 gether floating far above the sea. Nor is a soaring bird easily 

 disturbed. I have seen a soaring goshawk, when a bullet 

 clipped a secondary from one of its wings, answer with its 

 wild scream of defiance, and without haste or change of motion 

 fill out an unbroken curve of its ascending spiral. 



