Page:The ocean and its wonders.djvu/198

 been seen before since entering Smith’s Strait. It is well known to the polar traveller as a migratory bird of the American continent. Like the others of the same family, it feeds upon vegetable matter, generally on marine plants, with their adherent molluscan life. It is rarely or never seen in the interior; and from its habits may be regarded as singularly indicative of open water. The flocks of this bird, easily distinguished by their wedge-shaped line of flight, now crossed the water obliquely, and disappeared over the land to the north-east.

“The rocks on shore were crowded with sea-swallows, birds whose habits require open water; and they were already breeding......The gulls were represented by no less than four species. The kittiwakes—reminding Morton of ‘old times in Baffin’s Bay’—were again stealing fish from the water (probably the small whiting), and their grim cousins, the burgomasters, enjoying the dinner thus provided at so little cost to themselves. It was a picture of life all round.

“Here, for the first time, Morton noticed the arctic petrel,—a fact which shows the accuracy of his observation, though he had not been aware of its importance. This bird had not been met with since we left the north water of the English whalers, more than two hundred miles south of the position on which he stood. Its food is essentially marine; and it is seldom seen in numbers, except in the highways of open water