102 REMARKS ON THE ALBATROSS AND PETREL. 



names that successive travellers have bestowed upon them, 

 and from the difference between the sexes, as well as from 

 the change which takes place in the same individual at dif- 

 ferent ages and at different seasons of the year. 



The greatest number of albatrosses are met with between 

 the 55th and 59th parallel of latitude, and probably in that di- 

 rection they may have no boundary but the polar ice. Although 

 they are to be met with over the whole of this vast space, there 

 are some places for which they have a preference, and in which 

 they are found in greater numbers than elsewhere. They are 

 most abundant about the Cape of Good Hope and about Cape 

 Horn, and both these places are well known to be almost con- 

 stantly the scenes of very violent storms, — The petrels are 

 more numerous, and more widely diffused, since they are to be 

 met with from pole to pole, and they vary very much in size. 

 The albatross is distinguishable by its great size ; but one 

 species of the petrel (Procellaria gigantea) is nearly as 

 large, while another species is as different from this as a 

 sparrow from a goose. 



It is certain that fish do serve for food to the albatross 

 and petrel, although they were never seen pursuing the fly- 

 ing fish, which are said to fall a prey to them when they 

 leave the deep, and, betaking themselves to their wings to 

 avoid the enemy in the water, only encounter a new danger 

 in the albatross ; nor were any remains, either of these or of 

 the mollusca, — which, as it were, cover these seas, and would 

 alone be sufficient to satisfy one of these birds for a whole 

 day, — ever found in their stomachs. We have seen them sur- 

 rounded with Sea-blubbers, Physaliae, Salpae, &c, but these 

 afforded them no nourishment ; they invariably sought other 

 food. This was not the case with cuttlefish and calmars, 

 fragments of which were constantly found in their stomachs. 



One circumstance which could not escape notice during 

 our long voyages, is the habit, we should almost say the ne- 

 cessity, which these birds are under of frequenting rough seas. 

 The tempest itself does not alarm them ; and when the wind 

 is blowing most furiously they may be seen wheeling about 

 without appearing at all affected by it. When, on the other 

 hand, the face of the ocean is smoothed by a calm, they fly 

 to other regions, again -to appear with the return of winds 

 and storms. No doubt the reason of this is, that the agita- 

 tion of the waves brings to their surface those marine animals 

 which serve for food to these birds. It is from the same rea- 

 son that they keep near the eddying and disturbance occa- 

 sioned by the passing of a vessel through the water. This 

 design was clearly demonstrated to us when approaching 



