78 
RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 
latitude 40° north and longitude 48° west, about 920 miles 
from land. # But a still more extraordinary instance, both as 
regards distance from land and situation, is that of a common 
Titlark (. Alauda pratensis ) having alighted on board a vessel 
from Liverpool, in latitude 47° 4' south, longitude 43° 19' 
west, in Sept. 1825, at a distance of at least 1300 miles from 
the nearest main land of South America, and about 900 from 
the wild and barren island of Georgia. The poor little 
traveller was taken, and brought back to Liverpool, where it 
was seen by Dr. Traill, one of our most eminent naturalists. 
An Owl has been also seen gliding over the midst of the 
Atlantic Ocean, with as much apparent ease as if it had been 
seeking for mice amongst its native fields. To the distant 
voyages of this bird, we can indeed bear our testimony, when 
sailing in the Mediterranean. At daylight a brown Owl was 
observed on the main-top- gallant yard, and secured by an 
active sailor : for three or four days it was detained, but as it 
appeared to pine, it was again turned adrift. At first it 
seemed bewildered, but after wheeling round the ship twice 
or thrice, it steered, direct as an arrow from a bow, for the 
nearest land, distant about eighty miles. 
We cannot, after this, be surprised to hear, that certain 
seafaring birds are constantly found at a thousand miles, or 
often at greater distances, from land. Three of the most 
remarkable of these wild wanderers are the Albatross (Dio- 
medea exulans ), the Tropic-Bird (Phaeton Phoenicurus), 
and the Frigate-Bird (Tachyjpetes aquila). The first of 
these, the Albatross, the largest of the aquatic tribe, with 
plumage of the most delicate white, except the back and tops 
of its wings, which are of a dark grey, floats in the air, borne 
up by a vast expanse of wing, measuring, fourteen feet, or 
even more, from tip to tip. The air and the water, indeed, 
seem to be far more natural to it than the land, where it is 
so helpless, owing to its enormous length of wing, which 
prevents it from rising, unless it can launch itself from a 
steep precipice or projecting rock, that it is completely at the 
* Foster’s North America , vol. i. 
