CHAPTER XXI. The little boat she is toss'd about, Like a seaweed too and fro; The tall ship reels like a drunken man, As the gusty tempests blow: But the seabird laughs at the pride of man, And sails in a wild delight On the torn up breast of the night-black sea, MARY HOWITT. AMONG the birds of the far North, the snow-bunting-Emberiza nivalis-is one of the most interesting. Who has not seen the pretty "snow-bird" during a driving snow-storm, come round the barn for some hay-seed, or to the house for a crumb? But where do they go in summer? Why, they go to Iceland, and a fine time they have of it. They build their nests in the crags; and the male perches on some rock in the vicinity and sings all day long, while the female lays five small round eggs. The male bird takes his turn in sitting on the nest; and they feed on the seeds of grass, rushes, and other hardy northern plants. How extensively this bird migrates, it is difficult to tell. We naturally suppose that small birds have less power of flight than large ones; but the Mother Carey's chicken is found on the stormy ocean, a thousand miles from land. In America, the snow-bird probably goes to the region of Labrador and Hudson's Bay in summer. Some may fly across Baffin's Bay to Greenland, or even across the Greenland Strait, from there to Iceland, a journey that would not require a sea-flight of more than 300 miles at any one place. The snow-birds that summer in Iceland may, and very likely do, fly south, taking the range of the Faroes, Shetland, and Orkney, and so to Scotland, England, and the Continent. Great numbers of these birds spend their summer in Lapland, where they get very fat on the seeds that they gather on the plains, and in the lowlands. The Laplanders kill many of them for food, and prize them highly. In their winter plumage they are, like the ptarmigan, almost entirely white; but in summer they are more of a brown. In summer, this bird is fond of rocky and mossy places, where there are no trees and few bushes. A singular characteristic of most migrating birds, is very conspicuous in the snow-bunting. The male is most sensitive to heat, and the female to cold. In northern climes the male of this, as well as some other birds, is often seen in spring several days before the female. Then, in their autumn migration, the female appears in the region of its winter residence considerably before the male. We should suppose they would migrate together, when the male bird would have an opportunity of showing off his gallantry; which, with another class of bipeds, is considered mutually agreeable. Many of these modest and unostentatious birds have I seen, while riding across the dreary heaths of Iceland, perched on a stone or a mossy ridge, and singing and chippering away, as much as to say, "Here I am, as far north as old Boreas will let me go." The snow-birds undoubtedly take pretty long flights at sea, for they usually appear on the coast of England and Scotland late in the autumn, along with, and apparently driven by the north-east winds, having undoubtedly flown across the German Ocean, from the Norwegian coast. On their arrival, they appear sadly emaciated and exhausted, and some of them perish. With the wind that brings them, or soon after, generally comes a fall of snow. Without resting on the water, like the Mother Carey's chicken, the gull, the pochard, the Solan goose, and other seabirds, the snow-bunting must have a weary time of it in his flight across the stormy sea. Of gulls, there is almost an endless variety in Iceland; and, apparently, quite an endless quantity. Some of these are very large, larger than geese; and, though much "run to feathers," and not as much solid flesh as the goose, will often weigh six or eight pounds. Their wings extend above six feet. This bird is common, in some of its numerous families, wherever there is salt water; but there is one species peculiar to this country, and rarely found south of here—the Iceland gull-Larus Icelandicus. It is a kind of bluish ash-colour on the back, and the rest of the bird white. Like all his brethren, he is a great fisherman, and he knows where he can go and catch his dinner. The skua gull-Lestris cataractes—is a bird of very peculiar habits. It is seldom found except in the Arctic or Antarctic regions. Captain Cook found it while he was skirting the polar ice. They are a very exclusive sort of bird, living in large colonies, where none but their own species are allowed to come. They are terrible fighters; and other gulls, or even the eagle or the raven, or scarcely man himself, can invade their colony with impunity. Against a large bird of prey, during the breedingseason, they will charge en masse; and wo be to their enemy! He will get pierced with scores of angry beaks. It is hazardous for man, and instances are mentioned of some who have gone among them without much protection to their heads, having actually got their skulls broken by these powerful birds. These gulls are not fond of fishing; they prefer that others should fish for them. When the great gull, or any other of the fishing-tribes, has got a load, and filled his stomach, neck, and bill with fish, and is flying slowly and heavily away to his expectant brood, this arrant freebooter, the skua gull, dashes at the sober fisherman; and his only chance of life is to disgorge all he has, when the skua catches it in its fall, or picks it up from the surface of the water or land. The Icelanders sometimes, in visiting the haunts of the skua, carry a sharp pike projecting a little above the head, and the heedless gull comes dashing down at the man, and is transfixed on the murderous iron. One of the birds found in Iceland, and peculiar to high Arctic and Antarctic regions, is the large snowy owl-Strix nyctea. This is a magnificent bird, two feet in length, and four feet and a half in the stretch of its wings. One of these birds adorns the parlour of Mr. Simpzen, an Iceland merchant at Reykjavik. This bird is literally as white as snow, though the females and the younger birds have some brownish feathers. The snowy owl is a bird of prey, and night and day are the same to him. The ptarmigan and the tern, cannot, all of them, find food during the long Iceland winters; therefore, some of them, in their turn, furnish dinners for his majesty, the white owl. When the wind beats, and the snow drives, so that they would sweep the birds to destruction, out comes this king of the wilds, clad in his armour of impenetrable down and feathers; and, riding on the wings of the tempest, keeps holiday amid the wildest turmoil of nature. All parts of the bird, except the point of the beak, the nails, and the eyeballs, are covered with feathers, so that he fears not the cold. This bird remains the whole year in Iceland, and is very rarely, and that in the coldest of weather, found as far south as Great Britain. One more feathered resident, and I have done. One of the hawk-tribe, peculiar to this country, the Jer-Falcon-Falco Icelandicus-is a most remarkable bird. He is peculiarly adapted to the wilds of Iceland, and the cold, naked cliffs of the Northern Isles. Though not often seen, there is no reason to believe their numbers are as small as might be supposed. They are no parasites, like the skua gull. Not they. They catch their prey alive and on the wing; and so terrible and unerring is their flight, that nothing can escape them. Except his near relative, the peregrine falcon, there is probably not a bird in the world that can equal his speed on the wing. Grey, like his native cliffs, he will sit on a projecting crag, quiet for hours, until a flock of N rock-doves or some ducks are seen flying by. He leaps into the air, vaulting upwards till he has "got the sky" of his prey, to a sufficient height for gaining the necessary impetus; his wings shiver for a moment, as he works himself into a perfect command and poise, and to the full extent of his energy. Then he dashes downwards with such velocity that the impression of his path remains on the sky, like that of the shooting meteor or the flashing lightning, and you fancy there is a torrent of falcons rushing through the air. The stroke is as unerring as the motion is fleet. If it take effect in the body, the bird is trussed, and the hunt is over; but if a wing only is broken, the maimed bird is allowed to flutter to the earth, and another victim is selected. It sometimes happens that some inferior bird of prey comes in for the wounded game; but, in order to get it, he must proceed cautiously and stealthily, for wo betide it if it rises on the wing and meets the glance of the falcon. The raven himself never scoops out another eye if he rises to tempt that one. This bird is found in Norway, and sometimes in the north of Scotland. In former days they were used in hawking, and, in consequence of their strength and daring, and their unerring stroke, they were more prized in falconry than any other; but they were difficult to train; and consequently, in the days of falconry, they brought very high prices. The velocity of their flight, as well as that of the peregrine falcon, is put down at one hundred and fifty miles an hour. Compare that to a modern "express train!" How the latter lags behind! The flight of birds on long journeys is well ascertained, and numerous instances are recorded of the amazing velocity of falcons. King Henry IV., of France, had a peregrine falcon that flew to Malta, thirteen hundred and fifty miles, and arrived there the same day that he left Fontainebleau. Mudie says, the peregrine falcon is THE falcon, par excellence, of the falconers, on account of his rapid, powerful flight, great tractability, and other good qualities. The falcon, in falconry, always means the female, as they only |