166 
BIRD-LIFE. 
a closer glimpse of the jewelled coronet of some mighty 
mountain-range; the green fields have long since disap¬ 
peared, and the cultivated land lies far below the 
footsteps of the solitary wanderer, floating in a hazy 
mist of blue. He has taken leave of the habitations of 
man, and imagines himself to be alone when, far above 
him, he hears the shrill cry of the Lammergeir or the 
Condor; his is not the only heart that beats warmly 
amid this chilling cold. In the icy deserts of the North 
man wanders, untilhe thinks himself abandoned by all living 
creatures here below; when all of a sudden a Ptarmigan 
whirrs across his path, infusing new energy into his failing 
steps. The traveller who has lost his way on the sandy 
seas of Africa finds the little Desert Lark, far from all 
human habitation, on his dubious and uncertain path, 
and feels almost comforted by the sight of his small 
solitary companion. The daring buffalo-hunter of America 
leaves the beaten track, and rides across the waving 
prairies; no sign of humanity meets his keen glance, 
yet the little Prairie Owl peeps out from the entrance of 
his under-ground habitation, and, with comic hobs and 
bows, seems to say: “ Speak, child of man! what dost 
thou here ? ” The bird was here long before he was. The 
seaman ploughs the broad ocean with his craft; one 
boundless expanse of sky and water is all that meets his 
glance; no ship, no boat is to he seen; nought hut a 
school of porpoises diving and rolling in their merry 
gambols;—yes, there sweeps before him that mighty flyer, 
—which knows neither distance nor solitude, regardless 
alike of storm or calm,—the Albatross ! Birds live and 
dwell on the ocean, and they greet us with their hundred 
different notes in the primaeval forests, lying under the 
scorching sun of the Tropics. Thousands of birds live on 
