182 ORNITHOLOGY OF COLUMBUS’ FIRST VOVAGE. 
presence of numerous small land-birds was a fact capable of 
only an encouraging interpretation. 
In order to appreciate this, let us follow the record given 
by Irving of birds seen on the voyage. OnSeptember rath, 
when about two hundred and fifty leagues from land, a 
heron and a tropical bird called rato de junco, or wagtail, 
“hovered about the ship.” Both the locality and the fact 
that one of the birds is named specifically, render it prob- 
able that these birds were Old World species with which the 
voyagers were familiar, When about three hundred and 
sixty leagues from the Canaries, Columbus records seeing 
“a white tropical bird of a kind which never rests upon the 
sea.” If this bird had been a species of gull, it is more 
than probable than Columbus would have identified it. 
The fact, also, that gulls commonly rest on the water—a 
habit which was doubtless well known to so experienced a 
mariner—renders it possible that the bird Columbus here 
refers to was the tropic bird—perhaps the yellow-billed 
species, which is littoral rather than maritime, but makes 
extended flights across the ocean. During a recent trip to 
Trinidad, not long after we had crossed the track of the 
first voyage, on a line drawn from Bermuda to Porto Rico. 
I was reminded of the record of Columbus by seeing one of 
these birds. As the species breeds abundantly in Bermuda, 
it is quite possible that this bird was en route from those 
islands to Porto Rico, a flight of some eight hundred miles. 
Pinzon was also fully alive to the significance of the 
presence of birds. On September 18th we find that he 
hailed the Admiral and informed him that “from the flight 
of a great number of birds, and from the appearance of the 
northern horizon, he thought there was land in that 
direction.” 
It is evident that these birds did not alight on the vessels, 
but were seen flying by; and we may infer, therefore, that 
they were purely pelagic species—presumably petrels or 
shearwaters. 
