106 THALASSIDROMA BULLOCKII. 



the fishermen are horribly afraid, and make to the shoar as fast as they can, 

 being sure that there is a dangerous tempest at hand/' 



The author says you might call the bird Pegasus, " for that you shall to 

 admiration see it with incredible velocity run upon the very waves, crossing 

 of them as swift as the wind, being carried on like a storm, as its name 

 imports. If flocks of these draw near to any vessels at sea, experienced 

 mariners know they must presently lower their sails/' 



This passage would lead us to suppose that Willughby had not heard 

 of Mother Carey. In 1760, Brisson does not allude to her name. Latham 

 does, but spells it Gary. In 1743 Edwards knew it not, but says '^I believe 

 this tribe of birds all rest and feed on the backs of living or dead fishes that 

 float on the sea"(!), and adds, ''Mr, .Albin says they are called Peterils 

 because they imitate Peter." 



I have searched some early voyages, but cannot discover any thing about 

 Mother Carey. ''The Cary family are Lords of the Manor of Clovelly, 

 Bideford Bay, and were so temp. Richard 11." (Murray's ' Handbook of 

 Devon,' p. 288). 



Shakespeare, in ' Macbeth,' makes his witches sail in sieves, as went also 

 Annis Simpson, "the wise wife of Keith," 1590, in Scotland, who was quite 

 resolved to be first strangled and then burnt, in which she succeeded, though 

 James I. tried to save her in spite of herself, as Miss Strickland says (' Queens 

 of England,' vol. iv. p. 32 et seq.^. 



Perhaps I ought to have placed Mrs. Carey in the traditional and historic 

 sieve ; but the broomstick looked more appropriate, and thus she does not 

 occupy her ironclad. She is soaring over the flotsam, which, with the jetsam, 

 are her work, and looking out for a Pilot's thumb (query, that of a Positivist?), 

 and expressing herself thus : — 



'' V\\ do, 1^11 do, and ril do. . . . 

 . . . Here I have a pilot^s thumbs 

 Wreck^I as homeward he did come/' 



Macbeth, Act i. scene 3. 



