BY THE SEA. 121 



is a mystery which the duck, if it knows, has not 

 been sent to reveal. In what way do these surf 

 ducks and other birds, that wander over the 

 ocean's waste for weeks and months together, 

 obtain fresh water to slake their thirst ? Proba- 

 bly the rain-clouds often pour it down to them. 

 If the clouds fail, they must depend on their great 

 powers of enduring thirst, and the juicy nature of 

 their food. 



An old sea captain gives a very interesting 

 account of a flock of sea birds that he saw drink- 

 ing far from the land. He said : " They were 

 hovering around and under a storm cloud, clatter- 

 ing like ducks on a hot day at a pond, and drink- 

 ing in the drops of rain as they fell." The same 

 observer says: "They will smell a rain squall a 

 hundred miles, or even further off, and scud for it 

 with almost inconceivable swiftness." 



On an outlying rock, left bare by the receding 

 tide, a solitary old drake is preening his dress in 

 the sun. His entire plumage is deep black, in 

 great contrast to the large, bright, orange-yellow 

 knob at the base of the upper mandible, which 

 gleams like a living spark as it moves among 

 the sable feathers. How much he appears now 

 like a domestic hybrid mallard that has strayed 

 from the door-yard, as he stands there, turning 

 and rubbing his flexible neck on every part of his 

 body ! The oil tanks which he always carries 



