182 
THE FAIRY OF THE OCEAN. 
bird of a different species interfered and drove ofi" the pirate, flying 
away afterwards on his own afiairs with the serene satisfaction of 
having done a good deed. 
The tropic-birds are frequently met by voyagers far out at sea; 
but it is believed that they return every night to dry land, roosting 
and breeding on the rocks and reefs of the warm Southern seas. 
Linnaeus conferred on them the generic name of Phaeton, or Birds of 
the Sun; either from the circumstance that they are confined to tropical 
regions, or because they rise to great elevations in the glare of a 
tropical sun. The red-tailed tropic-bird is a thing of beauty, with 
sheeny plumage, elegant form, and both power and facility of flight. 
From the loudness of the shriU cry which she utters when on the wing, 
our seamen have nicknamed her " The Boatswain." A distinofuished 
ornithologist more poetically alludes to her as " the fairy of the ocean." 
At all events, no one who has watched her as a stationaiy speck, elevated 
as far as the eye can reach, and defined against the cloudless azure of 
the sky; or suddenly descending like a falling star, and as suddenly 
checking her course to hover for a while over the passing vessel ; 
or darting like a meteor, with two long projecting tail-feathers stream- 
ing in the air, straight down upon a shoal of flying-fish ; or, again, 
gracefully soaring upwards with her prize, to rest, as it were, in the 
calm heights above, — no one can refuse to her a tribute of admiration. 
The first impression which the tropic-bird produces on the observer 
is not exactly that, says Tschudi, of a bird of ocean; he is rather 
inclined to see in her a denizen of land, wandering astray in the infinite 
wastes of the sea. According to Poppig, no bird equals her in grace- 
fulness of flight. She seems to swim, to cradle herself in the air. 
Without an}'- apparent movement of wing or body, she rises to " pro- 
digious altitudes," or nestles upon the aerial waves as upon a solid sur- 
face. It is only when engaged in fishing, or in following a vessel, that 
she is seen to pass from this state of repose into one of rapid and facile 
motion ; descending in a succession of wide sweeps, and continuing 
to fly round and round the ship. Often she soars so high that an un- 
trained vision is unable to distinguish her; and then, as she basks in 
