Some interesting articles on the ancient sport of “hawking,” or falconry, whichever is the correct term to use, in Country Life have recalled to me a and unusual experience in that line, which fell to my lot while the of whose crew I was a very portion was slowly making her way homewards from a port at the extreme western limit of the of Mexico. We were absolutely without live stock of any kind on board the , unless such small deer as rats and might be classed under that head. And, as so often happens at sea when that is the case, the men were very discontented at the absence of any dumb animals to make pets of, and often what they considered to be the lonely condition of a ship without even a cat. But we had not been out of port many days when, to our delight as well as , we saw one sunny morning about the fo’c’s’le a sweet little blue and yellow bird about the bigness (or littleness) of a . Being well out of sight of land, no one could imagine whence he came, neither did anybody see him arrive. He just materialised as it were in our midst, and made himself at home forthwith, as though he had been born and bred among men and fear of them was unknown to him. We had hardly got over the feeling of almost childish delight this pretty, fearless wanderer gave us when another appeared, much the same size, but totally different in colour. It was quite as tame as the first arrival, and did not quarrel with the first-comer. Together they explored most the of the fo’c’s’le, much delighted with the cockroaches, which everywhere. And before long many others came and joined them, all much about the same size, but of all the imaginable. They were all alike in their tameness, and it really was one of the most pleasant sights I ever witnessed to see those tiny, brilliant birds fluttering about our fo’c’s’le, or, tired out, roosting on such queer as the edge of the bread-barge or the shelves in our . Their presence had a most elevating influence upon the roughest of us—we went softly and gently, for fear of startling these delicate little visitors who were so unafraid of the giants among whom they had voluntarily taken up their . At meal-times they about the fo’c’s’le deck picking up and behaving generally as if they were in the beautiful and forests whence they had come. For it is hardly necessary to say that they were all land birds; and when during a calm one day one of them, stooping too near the sea, got wet, and was unable to rise again, August McManus, as tough a citizen as ever painted the Highway red, leapt overboard after it, and, with a touch as gentle as the enwrapping of , rescued it from its .  
This strange development of sea-life went on for a week, the weather being exceedingly fine, with light winds and calms. And then we became suddenly aware that some large birds had arrived and taken up positions upon the upper yards, where they sat motionless, occasionally giving to a cry. What they were none of us knew, until shortly after we had first noticed them one of our little messmates flew out from the ship’s side into the sunshine. There was a sudden swish of wings, like the of a through the air, and downward like a brown shadow came one of the watchers from aloft, snatching in a pair of cruel-looking the tiny from our midst. Then the dullest of us realised that in some mysterious way these birds, a species of , had become aware that around our ship might be found some of their natural food. Now we were not less than 200 miles from the coast[161] at the time, and to my mind it was one of the strangest things conceivable how those should have known that around a ship far out at sea would be found a number of little birds suitable to their needs. The presence of the small birds might easily be explained by their having been blown off the land, as high winds had prevailed for some little time previous to their appearance, but as the hawks did not come till a week afterwards, during the whole of which time we had never experienced even a four-knot breeze, I am convinced that the same theory would not account for their arrival. It may have been a coincidence, but if so it was a very one; and in any case what were these land birds of powerful flight doing of their own free will so far from land? Unless, of course, they were a little band migrating, and even then the coincidence of their meeting our ship was a most strange one.
 
We, however, troubled ourselves but little with these . The one thing patent to us was that our little pets were exposed to the most deadly peril, that these birds were carrying them off one by one, and we were apparently powerless to protect them. We could not cage them, although the absence of cages would have been no obstacle, as we should soon have manufactured efficient substitutes; but they were so happy in their freedom that we felt we could not deprive them of it. But we organised a raid among those bloodthirsty pirates, as we called them, forgetting that they were merely obeying the[162] law of their being, and the first dark hour saw us silently creeping aloft to where they had taken their roost. Two were caught, but in both cases the captors had something to remember their encounter by. Grasping at the shadowy birds in the darkness with only one free hand, they were unable to prevent the fierce creatures defending themselves with and talons, and one man came down with his prize’s claws driven so far into his hand that the wounds took many days to heal. When we had secured them we couldn’t bring ourselves to kill them, they were such handsome, birds, but had they been given a choice in the matter I make no doubt they would have preferred a speedy death rather than the lingering pain of starvation which befell them. For they refused all food, and sat moping on their perches, only rousing when any one came near, and glaring unsubdued with their bold, fierce eyes, bright and fearless until they in death. We were never able to catch any more of them, although they remained with us until our captain managed to allow the vessel to run upon one of the enormous coral reefs that crop up here and there in the Gulf of Mexico. The tiny spot of dry land that appeared at the summit of this great mountain of coral was barren of all vegetation except a little creeping plant, a kind of arenaria, so that it would have afforded no satisfactory abiding-place for our little shipmates, even if any of them could escape the eyes of their enemies aloft. So that I suppose after we abandoned the ship[163] they remained on board until she broke up altogether, and then fell an easy to the .
 
This was the only occasion upon which I have known a vessel at sea to be visited by so a collection of small birds, and certainly the only case I have ever heard of where land birds have flown on board and made themselves at home. When I say at sea, of course I do not mean in a narrow strait like the Channel, where passing must often be visited by migrants crossing to or from the Continent. But when well out in the North Atlantic, certainly to the of the Azores, and out of sight of them, I have several times known a number of swallows to fly on board and cling almost like bats to whatever they first happened to reach. with their long battle against the overmastering winds, faint with hunger and thirst, they had at last reached a resting-place, only to find it so unsuited to all their needs that nothing remained for them to do but die. Earnest attempts were made to induce............