Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, Tempest the ocean. There leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land, and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea. Meanwhile the tepid caves, and fens, and shores, Their brood as numerous hatch from the egg, that soon, Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed Their callow young; but feathered soon and fledge They summed their pens, and, soaring the air sublime, With clang despised the ground, under a cloud In prospect. There the eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar-tops their eyries build. Part loosely wing the region; part more wise, In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way, Intelligent of seasons, and set forth Their aery caravan, high over seas Flying, and over lands, with mutual wing Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes. From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solaced the woods, and spread their painted wings,