THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 39% 
for itself; precluded, however, from plunging into 
the sea; it can take only such as, like the Flying- 
fish, leap into another element. With such suc- 
cess, however, does it attack these, that it has been 
seen to snap up three in succession in the course 
of a few minutes. If, after having captured a fish, 
it is awkwardly placed in the beak, it hesitates 
not to drop it, secure of seizing it again in the 
descent. 
To the immense congregations of aquatic birds, 
for the purpose of hatching and rearing their young 
in places congenial to their habits, allusion has 
already been made; and the following picture, vividly 
drawn by the pen of an accomplished naturalist, is 
probably not overcharged. 
Le Vaillant, on visiting the tomb of a Danish 
captain at Saldanha Bay, near the Cape of Good 
Hope, beheld, after wading through the surf, and 
clambering up the rocks, such a spectacle as he 
supposed had never appeared to the eye of mortal. 
“ All of a sudden, there arose from the whole sur- 
face of the island an impenetrable cloud, which 
formed, at the distance of forty feet above our heads, 
an immense canopy, or rather a sky, composed of 
birds of every species, and of all colours ;—cormo- 
rants, sea-gulls, sea-swallows, pelicans, and, I believe, 
the whole winged tribe of that part of Africa, 
was here assembled. All their voices mingled to- 
gether, and, modified according to their different 
kinds, formed such a horrid music, that I was every 
moment obliged to cover my head to give a little 
relief to my ears. The alarm which we spread was 
