A Bird's-Eye View 



away, shooting to this side and that, in search 

 of prey." 



This is a graphic picture of the peculiar at- 

 mosphere of water fowl. In such a scene, all 

 the finest song birds the earth can offer will 

 vanish from one's thoughts in the sense of 

 glorious wildness, freedom, and buoyancy of 

 spirits displayed by these noble and graceful 

 creatures, that are so fitting an accompaniment 

 to the sounding solitude and sombre majesty of 

 ocean scenery. Reflecting in their various tem- 

 peraments the alternating moods of the marine 

 divinity, they are the genii of the deep, ocean's 

 glances in the upper air. The giant black- 

 backed gull, rapacious and tyrannical, the eagle 

 of all water fowl, matches the ocean's fiercest 

 energy. The frigate bird, petrel, and albatross, 

 forever ranging over its illimitable expanse, be- 

 token well its interminable restlessness. The 

 milder sorts of gulls, and terns, snow-white and 

 pearly winged, reflect its crested waves, when, 

 kindled by a summer's wind, the liquid plain is 

 flecked with silver caps; while the dainty float- 

 ing phalaropes, with the nimble-footed plover 

 and sandpiper that frequent the shore, image the 

 laughing ripples on the beach, when the majestic 

 ocean spirit throbs in vast serenity. Byron's 



9S 



