306 VERTEBRATA. 
The natatorial birds are divided into six families : the Anatid^, including the Flamingoes, 
Swans, Geese, Ducks, &c. ; the Colymbid^, including the Grebes, Divers, Guillemois, &g. ; the 
Alcad^, including the Penguins, Auks, Puffins, &c. ; the Pelicanid^, including Pelicans, Cor- 
morants, Friyale-Birds, Gannets, Darters, Tropic-Birds, <fec. ; the Lakid^e or Gulls ; and the 
Procellarid^, including the Albatross, Fulmars, Petrels, &c. 
remember, painfully, the M'earisomeness of protracted calms. But travelers who have a turn for natural history, often 
find amusement in circumstances which kill others with ennui. At particular seasons of the year, a ship has no 
sooner been two or three days out at sea, than the passengers observe birds of various kinds perched upon the rig- 
ging. Fatigue is generally supposed to be the cause of these visits, though we cannot always have recourse to this 
explanation, since even when the shore is near at hand, these little explorers of strange things will come and display 
their beauty to the mariner, reminding him of green woods and sunny glades, in the midst of vast billows and the 
watery deep. 
" We believe that hawks and falcons are not usually reckoned among migratory birds ; yet it is certain that they 
sometimes cross the Mediterranean where it is broadest, as well from Africa to Europe as from Europe to Africa. 
One day in summer, lying almost midway between Marmorice and Greece, we observed a golden falcon coming up 
swiftly from the south, and resting upon the top-gallant-sail-yard. As he remained there a considerable time, w'e 
inferred that he meant to make the passage to Europe in our company ; and a young sailor went up to do the honors 
of the ship, and invite him to descend. Having evidently had enough of flying, the falcon made no objection. He 
suffered himself to be taken without the least resistance ; and when brought down to the deck looked about him, as 
we thought, with tokens of pleasure. Perhaps he detected the smell of meat ; and certainly when some was offered 
to him, the voracity with which he fell upon it suggested the probability that we were indebted for the pleasure of 
his company to hunger rather than weariness. 
"Being treated with much kindness, he showed no desire to quit us, though allowed his full freedom. He flew fore 
and aft, soared up to the vane, and then, M'hen he thought proper, came down like an arrow. 
"Every body on board was amused with him, and loved to gaze at his large, bright, piercing eyes as he watched 
ever}^ thing around him, or turned up quick glances at the clouds. We began to think him as tame as a kitten, and 
gave him, by way of peace-offering, bits of meat with our fingers, and some of the bolder among us even ventured to 
stroke his speckled breast. This, however, was not done without some apprehension, for he had sharp claws, and 
his beak was formidable. 
" When he had already been with us eight or ten days, we came in sight of Etna, towering ten thousand feet into 
the blue firmament, and with its deep snowy cap, looking like a stationary cloud. The falcon no doubt saw it much 
sooner than we did ; but he had been kindly treated, and was doubtless loath to break hospitable ties. But when 
liberty or servitude was the question, he could not long hesitate ; and after wheeling twice or thrice about the ship, 
as if to take an affectionate leave of us, he rose aloft ; plunged into space, and disappeared in tlie direction of the 
great mountain. We could not blame him, though, as he had grown friendly and familiar, we much regretted his 
departure. 
" Some of the old Dutch navigators being, like the rest of their countrymen, possessed strongly by the love of gar- 
dening, often used to make the attempt to indulge in the pleasures of horticulture on board ship. They made large, 
long, and deep boxes, filled them with fine earth, and raised for themselves cresses and other salads during their voy- 
ages to the east. When the keen-eyed birds perceived, as they could from a great distance, these little fioating 
patches of verdure, they often alighted on the vessels to examine them. But most of the visits paid to ships by birds 
are owing to precisely the same motive as makes wayfarers pause at an inn on the road — they have traveled far, and 
need a little repose. 
" Unfortunately, sailors have formed a strange theory respecting the appearance of birds in the neighborhood of 
their vessels, on their sails, or among the rigging. They look upon them as the sure forerunner of storms. Even 
the most observant travelers are sometimes betrayed, by putting confidence in seafaring men, visvially full of prejudice 
and superstition, into sharing this belief. An able naturalist, sailing out of the Baltic, observed, just before losing 
sight of the island of Gothland, a small gray bird of the sparrow tribe, following the ship, upon which the captain said 
they should certainly have bad weather. Accordingly, in less than half an hour the M'ind rose, the sea ran high, and 
the waves broke fiercely over the bulwarks. The same writer remarks that in the North Sea, the Baltic, and on the 
coast of Spain, whenever birds came on board, a tempest was sure to follow, which led him to infer that the petrel is 
not the onlj^ bird whose visits portend storms. 
" Navigators in the Indian Ocean sometimes observe upon the yards and rigging of their ships, unknown birds of 
the richest plumage, which come to them when they are so far out at sea that nothing but experience could prove 
the possibility of a bird's flying to so great a distance. There are two species of cuckoo, natives, it is said, of Hawaii, 
which are known to fly across the ocean all the way from Australia to New Zealand, a distance of a thousand miles, 
without once resting, because there is no land between on which they could alight. As swift birds, however, fly at 
the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an hour, they can perform this formidable passage in less than five hours and 
a half. 
"An eastern mariner once related to us a curious anecdote of a bird-visitor which he had many years before on 
board his ship. Having left the vicinity of Danger Island, he sailed along almost due east for upward of a thousand 
miles, when, early one morning, he observed among the cordage, a bird in shape like a swallow, but of the most 
exquisite and delicate colors ; its breast was bright azure, its tail green, its wings scarlet ; from its head rose a 
golden crest, and its eyes were surrounded by a circle of pink feathers. It had been subdued, no doubt, by means 
of hunger, to a temper of the greatest tameness. He held out to it a little rice upon a plate. The bird descended, 
perched upon his arm, and ate with extreme voracity. It was evidently much used to man, took fright at no one, but 
at dinner walked coolly about upon the cabin-table among the plates and dishes, now taking a bit from one hand, and 
