. The bird . atedfrom near at hand, the first of the winged kingdom should havenothing of that serenity which a free life promises. His eye iscruelly hard, severe, mobile, unquiet. His vexed attitude is that ofsome unhappy sentinel doomed, under pain of death, to keep watchover the infinity of ocean. He visibly exerts himself to see if his vision does not avail him, the doom is on his dark counte-nance; nature condemns him, he dies. 7 a . 106 TRIUMPH OF THE WING. On looking at him closely, you perceive that he has no feet. Or atall events, feet which being palmate and exceedingly sho
. The bird . atedfrom near at hand, the first of the winged kingdom should havenothing of that serenity which a free life promises. His eye iscruelly hard, severe, mobile, unquiet. His vexed attitude is that ofsome unhappy sentinel doomed, under pain of death, to keep watchover the infinity of ocean. He visibly exerts himself to see if his vision does not avail him, the doom is on his dark counte-nance; nature condemns him, he dies. 7 a . 106 TRIUMPH OF THE WING. On looking at him closely, you perceive that he has no feet. Or atall events, feet which being palmate and exceedingly shoit, can neitherwalk nor perch. With a formidable beak, he has not the talons of atrue eagle of the sea. A pseudo-eagle, and superior to the trae inhis daring as in his powers of flight, he has not, however, hisstrength, his invincible grasp. He strikes and slays: can he seize ? Thence arises his life of uncertainty and hazard—the life of acorsair and a pirate rather than of a mariner—and the fixed inquiry. ever legible on his countenance: Shall I feed? Shall I havewherewithal to nourish my little ones this evening? The immense and superb apparatus of his wings becomes on land THE FRIGATE BIRD. 107 a danger and an embarrassment. To raise himself he needs a strongwind and a lofty station, a promontory, a rock. Surprised on asandy level, on the banks, the low reefs where he sometimes halts,the frigate-bird is defenceless; in vain he threatens, he strikes, for ablow from a stick will overcome him. At sea, those vast wings, of such admirable utility in ascent, areill-fitted for skimming the surface of the water. When wetted, theymay over-weight and sink him. And thereupon, woe to the bird !He belongs to the fishes, he nourishes the mean tribes on which hehad relied for his own behoof; the game eats the hunter, the ensnareris ensnared. And yet, what shall he do ? His food lies in the waters. He isever compelled to draw near them, to return to them, to skim in-cessantly the hatefu
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