RAPIDITY OF FLIGHT. 
95 
thousand miles, or often at greater distances, from 
land. Three of the most remarkable of these wild 
wanderers are the Albatross ( Diomedea exulans ), 
the Tropic-Bird ( Phaeton Phcenicurus ), and the 
Frigate-Bird ( Tachypetes 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 gray, 
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 help- 
less, 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 mercy of those who approach, 
and one blow on the head generally kills it in 
stantly. 
The Tropic-Bird is the very reverse of the heavy 
gigantic Albatross, and might fairly be called the 
fairy of the ocean ; seen as it is in the genial lati- 
tudes of the warmest climates of the globe, — now a 
stationary speck, elevated as far as the eye can 
reach, contrasted with the dark blue of the sky, like 
a spangle in the heavens ; then suddenly descending 
like a falling star, and as suddenly checking its 
course to hover for awhile over the topmost point of 
a vessel’s masts, and then darting like a meteor 
with its two long projecting tail-feathers streaming 
in the air, downwards on a shoal of flying-fish ; and 
then rising gracefully with its prize, again to soar 
aloft and take its rest above the clouds. 
But light and airy as is the Tropic-Bird, what 
