ALBATROSSES 103 



fastened around its neck on which was scratched 

 the news of the 'vvrecking of the French ship 

 Tamaris three weeks before, and the survival of 

 thirteen of her crew on Crozet Island. During this 

 period the albatross had flown over four thousand 

 miles of ocean, too terrified by its burden to stop 

 to feed. It was a remarkable incident, quite re- 

 versing the experience of the ancient mariner; 



"Instead of the cross, the Albatross 

 About ray neck was hung." 



Intellectually, man's relation with albatrosses 

 has been less spectacular but of equal interest. 

 Linnaeus, one hundred and sixty-eight years ago, 

 first played taxonomic Adam to the albatross, call- 

 ing it Diomedea exulans. Its godfather was prob- 

 ably therefore the famous hero of the siege of Troy, 

 but Grecian etymology provides a much more poetic 

 and appropriate derivation, and it is pleasant to 

 think of the albatross, whether winging over foam 

 crests or at home on its little isle as being ever 

 Dio-medea or God-counseled. In its specific ap- 

 pelation Linnaeus was also happy for to the ordin- 

 ary observer, the wandering albatross is truly 

 exulans — homeless, banished apparently from all 

 connection with solid land. 



It must be confessed, however, that Linnaeus 

 made a faux pas when he was led to associate in 

 the genus of the great-winged albatross, the little 

 fin-winged penguin — birds as unlike in habits as 

 they are in physical makeup — suffering compari- 

 son only in their astonishing divorce from land. 



