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But there seems no unusual abundance of insectivorous birds to render this necessary; and as we cannot believe that such a curious peculiarity is without meaning, it seems probable that it is the result of a former condition of things, when the island possessed a much richer fauna, the relics of which we see in the isolated birds and Mammalia now inhabiting it; and when the abundance of insectivorous creatures rendered some unusual means of escape a necessity for the large-winged and showy butterflies.
Amongst large-winged birds, carried a long distance from all lands and resting upon the waves from the fatigue of their flight, I saw some magnificent albatrosses, uttering discordant cries like the braying of an ass, and birds belonging to the family of the long-wings. As to the fish, they always provoked our admiration when we surprised the secrets of their aquatic life through the open panels.
Without a word, Chester pulled one of the orders he had appropriated from General Strauss's desk from his pocket and passed it to the commandant. The latter glanced at it quickly, and then bowed. "You shall have the machine in five minutes," he said, and left them. True to his word, five minutes later a large-winged biplane stood before them.
Once a large-winged, smudged shape, making no sound as it slipped across the heavens, came flapping almost up to him, peering this way and that at him and his companions, with amber flaming eyes set in a cat-like, oval face.
The clapping close to our ears of large-winged birds; the swirling of the circling sea-gulls; the amazing nearness of the cloud drapery all this gave us the sense of being in a new world, and of its being a strangely pleasant one.
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