104 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



and their extreme adaptations for continued exist- 

 ence in the air and the water respectively. One 

 can readily tell that Linnaeus was a closet, or at 

 least a terrestrial, rather than a sea-going scientist, 

 for his contribution to the habits of the wandering 

 albatross are, ''cethera altissime scanden^; victitans 

 e Triglis volitantibus a Coryphcena exagitatis." 

 But this bird neither attains great altitudes in the 

 air, nor does it, to my knowledge, capture living 

 flyingfish. 



In more recent years, as additional specimens 

 have been secured, more and more species have 

 been differentiated, until the family Diomedeidae 

 now contains several genera, about a dozen well- 

 marked species and perhaps twice as many more or 

 less clearly defined subspecies. These latter dis- 

 tinctions must always be checked up with the fact 

 that there are several distinct changes of plumage 

 from nestling to adult, while, like most birds of 

 large size, albatrosses develop rather slowly, and 

 in addition to this there appears to be an unusual 

 amount of variation in birds of the same colony and 

 age. 



But I shall get away from the spirit of this 

 volume if I do not return to the living birds them- 

 selves. Fortunate is that bird or animal on the 

 earth today which has found an isolated niche for 

 itself, where it may claim comparative sanctuary. 

 And this does not necessarily mean isolation from 

 a geographical point of view. It may be a gastron- 

 omic one, such as the scavenger vultures have 

 achieved, or the tough leaf diet of the hoatzin, 



