United States or Burundi ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"That's got nothin' to do wi' the argiment," returned Grummidge sternly, for his anxieties were too serious to permit of his indulging in levity at the time. "What we've got to do is to find meat, for them auks are nigh as dry as the fish. Meat, lad, meat, wi' plenty o' fat, that's the question o' the hour." "Yes, it's our question, no doubt," rejoined Stubbs.
One was established in Porto Rico, and several others among the islands of Alaska, on whose rocky cliffs may be seen to-day clouds of Puffins, Auks, and Guillemots queer creatures that stand upright like a man crowding and shouldering each other about on the ledges which overlook the dark waters of Bering Sea.
The collection of British birds includes the Birds of Prey, as the hawks; the eagles; and the owls: the Perching Birds, as the swallows; kingfishers; thrushes; butcher birds; rollers; and wagtails: the Scraping Birds, as pheasants; pigeons; quails; partridges; and guinea-fowls: the Wading Birds, including the woodcock; snipes; herons; sandpipers; storks; &c.: and the Web-footed Birds, including swans; ducks, and sea ducks; grebes; divers; auks; petrels; gulls; gannets; cormorants; &c.
Sharks, dog-fish, wolf-fish, cod, and every fish large enough to swallow them, gulls, divers, auks, and almost every bird of the air, to say nothing of the nets set now from steam-propelled ships, might well threaten their speedy extermination. This is especially true when we remember that even their eggs are preyed upon in almost incalculable bulk as soon as they are deposited.
The way led round the chasm and downward, sometimes approaching the face of the cliff, where the inquisitive eyes and red bills of the puffins peered out of the crevices, and whole rows of auks and kittiwakes were thrown into violent agitation by the sight of the intruders; and sometimes leading back to the dark interior of the chasm.
The birds soon afterward came back from the south, the eider-ducks and the little auks, which we had caught in the summer time when upon the island; and then, as soon as the snow was all gone, the moss and stunted grass grew green, and plants sprouted up here and there, and the butterflies with bright yellow wings went gathering the honey from flower to flower, and you cannot imagine how glad we were once more to come out of the dreary winter into this bright sunshine and this pleasant summer.
It was great sport for a time, but soon seemed too much like slaughter, and we would let the awkward puffins, with their foolish eyes and Roman noses, come blundering along within a few feet of our muzzles, and chose rather the graceful, swift motioned auks and guillemots, whose rapid flight made them far more sportsmanlike game.
Within the margin of the pack, it appeared to consist of heavy and extensive floes, having a bright ice-blink over them; but no clear water could be discovered to the westward. The birds, which had hitherto been seen since our first approach to the ice, were fulmar peterels, little auks, looms, and a few gulls.
It is within the range of possibility that this story may be doubted. It doesn't matter; nothing can add to the despair of a man who has lost two great auks. As for Halyard, nothing affects him except his involuntary sea-bath, and that did him so much good that he writes me from the South that he's going on a walking-tour through Switzerland if I'll join him.
The river, too, seems to change its character, and become a pale serpent, uncoiling itself from some mountain fastness where no living creatures besides great auks and carrion birds, dwell. In such surroundings as these there were established in the Middle Ages, two religious houses, within a mile of one another, on opposite sides of the swirling river.
Word Of The Day