AN OCTOBER ABROAD 138 



back to land. But presently I noticed he found it 

 not inconsistent with his dignity to alight on the 

 rigging under friendly cover of the tops'l, where I 

 saw his feathers rudely ruffled by the wind, till 

 darkness set in. If the sailors did not disturb him 

 during the night, he certainly needed all his fortitude 

 in the morning to put a cheerful face on his situar 

 tion. 



The third day, when we were perhaps off Nova 

 Scotia or Newfoundland, the American pipit or tit- 

 lark, from the far north, a brown bird about the size 

 of a sparrow, dropped upon the deck of the ship, so 

 nearly exhausted that one of the sailors was on the 

 point of covering it with his hat. It stayed about 

 the vessel nearly all day, flitting from point to 

 point, or hopping along a few feet in front of the 

 promenaders, and prying into every crack and crev- 

 ice for food. Time after time I saw it start off with 

 a reassuring chirp, as if determined to seek the land; 

 but before it had got many rods from the ship its 

 heart would seem to fail it, and, after circling about 

 for a few moments, back it would come, more dis- 

 couraged than ever. 



These little waifs from the shore! I gazed upon 

 them with a strange, sad interest. They were 

 friends in distress ; but the sea-birds, skimming along 

 indifferent to us, or darting in and out among those 

 watery hills, I seemed to look upon as my natural 

 enemies. They were the nurslings and favorites of 

 the sea, and I had no sympathy with them. 



No doubt the number of our land-birds that 



