Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1880 — Wonderful Birds. [ARTICLE]

Wonderful Birds.

On* of the greatest wooden innaiunU history is the flight of birds. We have been all our lives so accustomed to eee birds that we are not now prone to marvel at the* wonders arrangements by which they are enabled to retest themselves in the air end urone! themselves through it aad we must remember how utterly fetite all man’s attempts to fly ot make flying-marhiTww have proved, aad then we are ia a condition to appreciate the marvel which is daily before our eyes. The ftfaflte him is endowed with magnificent pow era of flight His w ings stretch to an expanse of about ten or twelve feet; hie body ia about three feet long; hie bill ia very powerful, and adapted for seizing. Hi* feet are webbed, but very small; he has but little use for them, his home being in the air, hundreds of leagues away from land. He is seen soaring high above the ocean, but on its bosom he never rests. When he seek* repose he finds it aloft in the air. TTia foot rarely touches land except at the time for pairing, making nests, and rearing young. How is all this? The expanse of his wing is so vast, and his body is so liaht. that he can war with little or no exertion. Still it is difficult to see how this would enable him actually to sleep on the wing, as it is believed he does. A more close examination shows, however, that his bones are hollow, and that there is a* large pouch communicating with his lungs ana with the cavities in the bones. This pouch he can inflate with air, and thus render himself buoyant: the sustaining power thus acquired, added to that of the wings, is sufficient to keep him up. If his home be in the air, if he neither dive into the sea for fish, nor search on the land for other food,'whence does he derive his sustenance ? Impelled by hanger, he descends from the lofty regions where it is his delight to dwell. Whether the sea be rough or calm, he Cdes over the water, and any unwary hi approaching the surface, on being detected by his keen eye, is pounced upon and instantaneously swallowed. But the frigate-bird has other resources : though he cannot dive into the sea or catch fish, he avails himself of the labors of birds which can. He watches one of the birds which dive; he sees him emerge successfully, and fly off with his prey. Instantly the frigate-bird is down upon him with a swoop of terrible velocity. The ’ frightened diver drops his flsn in mid-air; the frigate-bird poises himself again, darts down with another swoop, ana seizes the fish ere it reaches the water.