From Newcastle to Port Said. 241 



In the Mediterranean one afternoon I noticed a fine 

 brown-backed fellow amongst the flock that followed us to 

 pick up whatever unconsidered trifles the cook gave to the 

 waves. The bird's left leg was dangling, as if broken — a 

 particularly noticeable disarrangement of the gull's physical 

 economy, considering the compact manner in which in flight 

 its pink legs and feet are tucked up under its shapely body. 

 In other respects, too, the bird was noticeable; it was 

 larger than its comrades, its wings were stronger, and it was 

 always in the forefront, and boldest of all in circling over 

 the poop. About the same time next day, what must have 

 been the identical bird still flew in our wake, and there it 

 remained at dusk. In the four-and-twenty hours the steamer 

 had made 250 knots in the teeth of a strong head-wind ; it 

 was almost incredible that a bird could have performed this 

 feat of endurance, but the evidence was overwhelming. 



A starling boarded us in the Mediterranean, a stray, 

 panting, tired-out castaway, that must have hailed from the 

 dusky mountainous coast of Algeria, about twenty miles off. 

 Starlings are not in the habit of making journeys except in 

 large flocks, and one would like to have heard the story, 

 perhaps tragical, perhaps romantic, of this feathered waifs 

 unfortunate flight. It was at its last extremity when it 

 reached the ship and perched upon the gunwale of the 

 captain's gig ; after a few minutes' rest it was able to take a 

 feeble flight into the shrouds, to which higher refuge it was 

 driven by an attempted capture by one of the crew. The 

 bird, in lieu of the trim and prettily-marked plumage of good 

 condition, was a rumpled mass of faded feathers. The men 

 chivied it from point to point, until it reached the mainyard. 

 When the field was clear it descended, very warily watching 

 all the time, and enjoyed a hearty feed from the poultry 

 coop. It took leave of the ship some time during the night. 



R 



