i82 ORNITHOLOGY OF COLUMBUS' FIRST VOYAGE. 



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. On September 14th, 

 when about two hundred and fifty leagues from land, a 

 heron and a tropical bird called rabo 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 eti 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 i8th 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. 



