REMARKS ON THE ALBATROSS AND PETREL. 101 



of P6 in Lombardy, mingled with the bones of elephants and 

 hippopotamuses. It bore also two horns on the nose, but had 

 not the bony partition of the nostrils : it also wanted incisive 

 teeth ; — in all of which characters it approximates to the living 

 two-horned species of Africa ; but its nostrils are much nar- 

 rower, and the bones of the nose thinner : it is termed Rhi- 

 noceros Cuvieri, and Rhin. ptorhinus. 



The third species {Rhinoceros incisivus,) is known only by 

 its enormous incisive teeth, which could only have belonged 

 to an animal as large as the two fossil species we have just 

 mentioned, which are totally devoid of this kind of teeth. 



Lastly, A fossil species, with incisive teeth, not larger than 

 a common hog, has been discovered ; teeth and numerous 

 bones, not only of adult but of old individuals, have been 

 found in France : M. Cuvier denominates it Rhinoceros mi- 

 nutus. 



REMARKS ON THE ALBATROSS AND PETREL. 



[From Freycinet's ' Voyage autour du Monde.'} 



The ocean has its own peculiar birds as well as the land. 

 Compelled to traverse incessantly its solitudes to obtain their 

 subsistence, they are endowed with a wonderful power of 

 flight ; so that in a few hours they are able to cross immense 

 distances, and to betake themselves to those places to which 

 their instinct directs them. Among these numerous tribes 

 there exist distinctions of manners as decided as the physical 

 characters by which they are classified ; and this induces us 

 to give the name of Birds of the Ocean (oiseaux pelagiens) , 

 properly so called, to the petrels and the albatrosses. The 

 former are found in every sea, under every meridian, and in 

 almost every latitude. Except the short time which they de- 

 vote to rearing their young, all the rest of their life is occu- 

 pied in traversing the ocean, and laboriously seeking in the 

 midst of storms, a scanty sustenance, almost as soon digested 

 as procured ; which seems to place them under subjection to 

 a single duty, that of obtaining nourishment. 



Boobies (Sula Bassana), Noddies (Sterna), Men of War 

 Birds (Pelecanus Aquilus, Linn.) and Tropic Birds (Phaeton 

 erubescens), although they occasionally take long flights over 

 the sea, do not deserve the name of Birds of the Ocean : they 

 simply make excursions ; and preferring their lonely cliffs to 

 the rocking of the waves, they generally return to them every 

 evening. 



The discrimination of the several species of Albatross has 

 become a matter of great difficulty, from the many different 



