Song Birds and Water Fowl 



the shell, although their staple food is herring. 

 To do this, they take up the shells into the air, 

 and drop them on the rocks to break them ; 

 and he adds, ' ' we saw one that had met with 

 a very hard mussel, take it up three times in 

 succession before it succeeded in breaking it ; 

 and I was much pleased to see the bird let it 

 fall each succeeding time from a greater height 

 than before." 



Their choice of habitat in summer necessarily 

 precludes the general student from enjoying 

 many of the aspects of this very interesting fam- 

 ily. But, in their winter life among us, they 

 afford most pleasant entertainment for an hour 

 to anyone who finds a flock of them upon the 

 beach. The spectator can no more tire of 

 watching the graceful and gigantic scrolls that 

 they inscribe upon the air, or their languishing 

 passage over the sea, than he can weary of the 

 ocean's ceaseless roll, whose deep incessant un- 

 dertones are an apt accompaniment for these 

 noble airy beings in their diverting and untir- 

 ing exhibitions ; beings formed, as one might 

 imagine, from the waves' foamy crests, mys- 

 teriously winged and vitalized — the offspring of 

 the sea, and mantled by the sky. 



Possibly others may not derive any positive 



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