304: 
griffin's lines. 
Often within the circumscribed space of a piece of culti- 
vated ground, wliere they must be kept by having their 
wings clipped, they will live many years. Let us quote 
also a paragraph which illustrates this : — ' One' of these 
birds died at Redcar last week. It had been in the garden 
of Mrs. Walton, in that place, for the long period of thirty- 
eight years. His exact age is not known, as he was full 
grown when caught. This probably is an instance of the 
longest life of tliis bird on record.' 
And now to finish our gossip about Gulls with a rhyme, 
let us take Gerald Griffin's spirited 
LINES ADDRESSED TO A SEAGULL SEEN OFF THE CLIFFS OF 
MOIIER, CLABE. 
White bird of the tempest ! Oh, beautiful thing ! 
AVith the bosom of snow and the motionless wing, 
Now sweeping the billow, now floating on high, 
Kow bathing thy plumes in the light of the sky; 
Now poising o'er Ocean thy delicate form, 
Now breasting the surge with thy bosom so warm ; 
Now darting aloft with a heavenly scorn, 
Now shooting along like a ray of the morn ; 
Now lost in the folds of the cloud- curtained dome, 
Now floating abroad like a flake of the foam ; 
Now silently poised o'er the war of the main, 
Like the Spirit of Charity brooding o'er pain ; 
Now gliding with pinion all silently furled. 
Like an angel descending to comfort the world! 
Thou seem'st to my spirit as upward I gaze, 
And see thee, now clothed in mellowest rays ; 
Now lost in the storm-driA'en vapours that fly 
Like hosts that are routed across the broad sky! 
Like a pure spirit true to its virtue and faith, 
'Mid the tempests of nature, of passion and dc:ilh ! 
Hise, beautiful emblem of purity, rise. 
On the sweet winds of Heaven to thine own brilliant skies, 
•Still higher ! still higher ! till lost to our sight, 
Thou hidest thy wings in a mantle of light. 
And I think how a pure spirit gazing on thee, 
jMust long for that moment — the joyous and free, 
AYhen the soul, disembodied from nature, shall spring;, 
Unfettered, at once to her Maker and King ; 
When the bright day of service and suffering past, 
Shapes fairer than thine shall shine round her at last ; 
While, the standard of battle triumphantly furled, 
She smiles like a victor serene on the world ! 
