Chapter Five.
The next day the ship was off Rio, and immediately sent her boats for provisions and supplies; the passengers did not land, as the captain stated that he would not stay an hour longer than was necessary, and on the second evening after their arrival they again made sail for the Cape.
The gulls were flying in numbers astern of the ship, darting down and seizing everything edible which was thrown overboard, and the conversation turned upon aquatic birds.
“What difference is there in the feathers of aquatic birds and others?” inquired Alexander: “a hen, or any land bird, if it falls into the water, is drowned as soon as its feathers are saturated with the water.”
“There is, I believe, no difference in the feathers of the birds,” replied Mr Swinton; “but all aquatic birds are provided with a small reservoir, containing oil, with which they anoint their feathers, which renders them water-proof. If you will watch a duck pluming and dressing itself, you will find it continually turns its bill round to the end of its back, just above the insertion of the tail; it is to procure this oil, which, as it dresses its feathers that they may carefully overlap each other, it smears upon them so as to render them impenetrable to the water; but this requires frequent renewal, or the duck would be drowned as well as the hen.”
“How long can a sea-bird remain at sea?”
“I should think not very long, although it has been supposed otherwise; but we do not know so much of the habits of these birds as of others.”
“Can they remain long under water?”