Now, the first time Ahab was perched aloft; ere he had been there
ten minutes; one of those red-billed savage sea-hawks which so often
fly incommodiously close round the manned mast-heads of whalemen
in these latitudes; one of these birds came wheeling and screaming
round his head in a maze of untrackably swift circlings.
Then it darted a thousand feet straight up into the air;
then spiralized downwards, and went eddying again round his head.
But with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon,
Ahab seemed not to mark this wild bird; nor, indeed, would any
one else have marked it much, it being no uncommon circumstance;
only now almost the least heedful eye seemed to see some sort
of cunning meaning in almost every sight.
"Your hat, your hat, sir!" suddenly cried the Sicilian seaman,
who being posted at the mizen-mast-head, stood directly behind Ahab,
though somewhat lower than his level, and with a deep gulf
of air dividing them.
But already the sable wing was before the old man's eyes;
the long hooked bill at his head: with a scream, the black
hawk darted away with his prize.
An eagle flew thrice round Tarquin's head, removing his cap to
replace it, and thereupon Tanaquil, his wife, declared that Tarquin
would be king of Rome.
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