440 
BXBD-LIFE. 
in a second the bird is in the water; at first it only 
wades, but as the streamlet deepens the water rapidly 
reaches the bird’s neck, its head, and then—what 
happens ? why it quietly allows the stream to flow on 
over it, perfectly indifferent, for it can run as well under 
water as on shore; it can dash on the wing through 
the roughest fall, or dive in deep water; and when it 
returns to the light of day the drops, still hanging to its 
plumage, are thrown off in pearly showers. It is at home 
on the ground, perfectly at its ease in the water, as also 
in the air: these three elements are its own,—it is master 
of them all! 
How happy are birds! The Gull accompanies the 
sailor from the safe haven far out on the broad ocean; 
and when its pinions are fatigued can rest at its ease on 
the glassy surface of the endless, terrible, and hungry 
deep, ever at war with man; it dips its wings in the 
foam, takes its rest on the swelling billows, which ever 
remain kindly and favourably disposed towards their fair 
burden. 
Whoever has been to sea must remember with pleasure 
the Shearwater, scarcely the size of a pigeon, with its 
long pointed wings, accompanying the ship long after the 
Gulls had taken their departure. They appear suddenly 
like mocking sprites, hanging just before the bows of the 
vessel: one knows not whence they come; they shoot, 
quick as thought, over the waves, away, and vanish all of 
a sudden out of sight, and one knows not whither they 
are bound. They arise from out of the depths of the 
ocean, into whose bosom they dive again. Their motions 
may be looked upon as a sport with air and water, with 
daylight and darkness: joyously they alike vanish and 
return again. Another bird, closely allied to them, plays 
