324 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fig. 5. Downy Young OF W.I [TE \LBvni)Si. 



tive estimate of the necessary food siipi^ly yields almost incredible re- 

 sults. Cutting Mr. Schlemmer's estimate in two, there would be 



1,000,000 birds, and allowing only 

 half a pound a day for each, surely 

 a minimum for these large, rapidly 

 growing birds, they would consume 

 no less than 250 tons daily. 



The young birds do not appear 

 to move about much, otherwise the 

 parents would have difficulty in 

 locating them when bringing food, 

 and one can not but wonder how 

 each finds its particular progeny 

 among the hundreds of thousands 

 that appear exactly alike to the 

 human eye. Both parents assist 

 in the labor of feeding the young, 

 a most interesting process. When 

 the parent alights near the young 

 bird the latter begins to beg en- 

 ergetically by gesture, for they are 

 silent as a rule, crouching before the old bird and working the head 

 backward and forward in urgent appeal. Then the youngster grasps 

 the bill of the adult, holding it crosswise, but at an acute angle, when 

 the partly macerated food is squirted with unerring aim right down 

 the throat of the feeding bird, apparently without the loss of a drop. 

 This process is repeated again and again until the parent has literally 

 pumped itself dry. 



Here and there are small groups of adults engaged in a sort of 

 play that may be a continuation of the courtship antics, a most 

 laughable performance. The birds 



commence by walking around each 



other in a sort of 'cake-walk' with 



a peculiar swagger suggestive of 



the 'bowery boy' in his glory. 



Then they snap their mandibles 



together with amazing rapidity, 



making a rattling resembling the 



drumming of the woodpecker. 



Again thoy stand upright, facing 



cacli otlicr, and put their bills 



under their wings 'as if hunting for a cigar,' as suggested by one of 



our officers. Next they stretch their necks upward with bills pointed 



Fig. f>. Sooty Albatross Feeding Young. 



