SKIMMING BIRDS. 371 



SKIMMING BIRDS. 



The general habit in which the birds of this division 

 agree the most, may be said to be that of rather low and 

 varying flight along the surface of the water, during which 

 they appear to be merely playing over the waters, though 

 they are very industriously and successfully feeding all the 

 time. 



They are the birds which give the greatest interest to the 

 sea, in as far as birds can increase the interest of that won- 

 derful element. They are dispersed indiscriminately around 

 all the shores, whether these be bold or tame in their charac- 

 ters. They range far to seaward, and some of them are met 

 with almost at mid ocean. Their wings are never wholly 

 at rest, if there is light by which a wing can be seen ; and 

 their voices are not often silent. When the tempest sweeps 

 with its utmost fury, and the congregated waves rise moun- 

 tain high, now hiding the ships in the compound valleys, now 

 disclosing them keel out on the accumulated ridges, when 

 cordage parts like cobwebs, masts snap like dry twigs, the 

 chain cable stiffens like a~rod, the shank of the best bower 

 " comes home from the nuke," and man is as powerless in 

 his best sea-boat as an infant in a basket, no wing can keep 

 the sky or endure the sea. But as long as the waves are 

 single, the skimming bird can not only remain, but find food, 

 let the wind blow as it lists. 



Its footing, too, is much more steady than those who have 

 not attended to the motion of waves would be apt to suppose. 

 Waves, instead of rolling with the velocity of the wind, roll 

 very little, and they are always highest, of course, when the 

 motion of the water is contrary to that of the wind. When 

 one looks on them from shore and with a side wind, they seem 

 to roll on, and (which of itself might convince us that the 

 apparent rolling is an optical deception) they always appear 



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