A Bird Yarn from the Sea.



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the crevice of some cliff. He is to be found in all the oceans within

the tropics, and is about the size of a partridge, but his long tail

feathers make him appear larger. Another kind of Tropic Bird is

the yellow billed one—plumage apricot colour. Another is the

Roseate Red-tailed Tropic Bird, larger than the others.”


My bird was evidently the common one : he had a stretch

of wing' just over two feet, an orange coloured beak of two inches

long ; his legs were yellow and short and his feet were small and

black, rather wider than long, with short webs, answering to the

description in the book; the two long swallow-like tail feathers,

measuring six inches in length were pure white. He was in perfect

condition as could be seen by his large lustrous dark brown eyes,

and the beautiful satin sheen on his perfectly smooth plumage. He

caused great excitement among some members of the shooting party

who wished for his skin, and declared that I ought to give him up as

he was such a beautiful specimen ; in fact, so determined was one

man to get hold of the bird somehow that I had to smuggle him

down into the cabin, and keep him safely tied down in a big basket

lent to me by the chief steward. I had told them all that nothing

should induce me to give him up to be killed, but that I meant to

let him fly the next morning, as it was then much too dark to put

him overboard, especially as he still seemed a bit stunned from his

headlong flight into the lighted ship.


The next morning I found him quite lively in the basket and

took him up to the boat deck, as some of them were very anxious to

photograph him, and it was nice and quiet up there. We made an

impromptu back ground of a black coat which we hung up, and he

was as good as gold while I held him against it, his portrait being

taken by no less than five cameras. Afterwards he was carefully

examined and measured, which ordeal he stood splendidly. Then

came his reward ! I took him to the side of the ship, and with a

sweep of the wings he was gone, but just as he started he gave

himself a great shake as though to make sure he was really free. I

and two friends—bird-lovers like myself—watched him for some

minutes flying low over the crested waves like a big white swallow,

till be became hardly distinguishable from the foam, and finally dis¬

appeared from view into the vast expanse of the ocean.



