CHAP, xiii.] ITS NATIVE HOME. 427 



contrasted scenery, amidst landscapes and water 

 scapes, from polar ghastliness, through tropical bril- 

 liancy, to equatorial oppressiveness, to those regions 

 where the fable of a man's losing his shadow is actually 

 verified once every day. We are made to wonder how 

 the Arctic Fox and the Musk Ox manage, not to bear 

 with comfort, for that seems quite out of the question, 

 but at all to get through their interminable winter of 

 existence. Taking our notions from the fire-side, we 

 are much better able to understand the enjoyments of 

 those creatures even which delight to bask in any de- 

 gree of heat, short of what will set them on fire, in 

 climates where dead bodies feel hot to the touch, and 

 where birds, if they incubate, would seem to do so prin- 

 cipally for the sake of keeping their eggs cool, and pre- 

 venting them from being roasted in the sun. 



We now take a dashing sweep from the embowered 

 rivulets, where we left the little glancing Kingfisher, 

 from the marshes, the meadows, and the shores of 

 England, where we found the Bittern, the Quail, the 

 Heron, and the Gull ; and after a long, long flight 

 without sight of land, set foot at last upon a group of 

 islands that arise in the midst of the Pacific Ocean. 

 We then mark our prey in this remote solitude flitting 

 over the uplands ; just below the region of the mud- 

 volcanoes, a few diminutive Geese are perceived, with 

 bright black eye, nimble irritable gait, voice like the 

 creaking of a rusty wheel, and bold and graceful power 

 of wing. They are an inviting quarry, and must be 

 added to our collection. We have them at last safe and 

 alive in Great Britain ; and we may as well confess an 

 anxiety to interest our readers in this little-known and 

 unpretending species, which, it may be feared, after 



