REMARKS ON THE ALBATROSS AND PETREL. 103 



the Cape of Good Hope. We were accompanied by a great 

 number of small petrels of the size of kingfishers, who were 

 busy skimming the surface of the water in a line of exactly 

 the width of our track. None were to be seen anywhere else. 

 We took great care that nothing should be thrown from the 

 corvette ; and yet we saw them every instant, darting their 

 bills into the water to seize some object which we were unable 

 to distinguish. 



The duration, the rapidity, the strength and the manner of 

 flight of these birds in general, has been a subject of study 

 and astonishment to us. Their agility in casting themselves, 

 like a harpoon, on their prey, in raising it with their beak, 

 their activity in striking the backs of the waves with their 

 foot, or in traversing their long unsteady ridges, were some- 

 times the only spectacle which the solitudes of the ocean had 

 to offer to us. 



One of the peculiar characters of these Palmipedes (web- 

 footed birds) is, that their flight is effected almost entirely by 

 sailing as it were through the air. If they do sometimes flap 

 their wings, it is in order to raise themselves more quickly ; 

 but such instances are rare. In the albatross, which was 

 principally remarked upon, both from its great size and from 

 its approaching nearer to the ships, it was observed that their 

 long wings were concave underneath, and that they did not 

 show any apparent vibration in whatever position the bird 

 might be ; whether when skimming the surface of the wave 

 they regulated their flight by its undulations, or when rising 

 into the air they described wide circles around the vessel. 



Land birds of prey who fly in this way without moving 

 their wings, are generally descending towards the earth when 

 they adopt this mode of flight; while the petrel and the 

 albatross easily raise themselves up into the air, turn quickly 

 round by means of their tail, and go on in the face of the 

 highest wind without their progress appearing to be at all di- 

 minished by its force, and without any apparent motion being 

 imparted to their wings. But still we must admit that some 

 impulse is given to the air which sustains them, — although 

 we cannot perceive it, it is true, since it probably is exerted 

 at the end of very long levers (at the extremities of their 

 wings) ; for, otherwise, we cannot conceive how the progres- 

 sive motion of the animal is accomplished. The exceedingly 

 long wings which many of these birds possess, spoil the 

 beauty of their figure when closed, as they produce a thick- 

 ness in the posterior part of the body. It is when flying that 

 they display themselves to the greatest advantage ; and they 

 are endowed with a wonderful strength to enable them to per- 



