14 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



music of clicking mandibles. But they only occasionally come to the point of 

 biting, and are always amenable to tact and persuasion. 



Usually, after the first paroxysm of snapping is over, one can stroke them 

 with little danger of scratched hands. They maintain a small fire of ob- 

 jection, with impotent nips, or try to slide off. But sometimes a youngster is 

 more determined than the rest. It often happens that in an eager rush to 

 scare an intruder the young bird stumbles in a petrel's hole and falls for- 

 ward with considerable force on its chin. In some way nature never meant 

 an albati-oss's head to be lower than its stomach, or the concussion affects 

 it unpleasantly for usually it disgorges its breakfast very promptly and ener- 

 getically, but curiously I never saw them do this without first falling over. 

 After such a performance the young one looks dejected, for it is usually left 

 hungry, and hunger is its chief trouble. 



After sunrise the albatrosses begin to feed the young. The old bird, coming 

 in from the sea, alights )iear her offspring, vvliich immediately takes the initia- 

 tive by waddling up and pecking or biting gently at her beak. This petitioning 

 always takes place and perhaps acts as some sort of stinmlus for in a few mo- 

 ments the mother stands up, and with head lowered and wings held loosely at 

 the side disgorges a mass of squids and oil. Just as she opens her beak the young 

 inserts its own crosswise and skillfully catches every morsel, which it bolts with 

 evident relish. This operation I saw repeated, with short intermissions, ten 

 times. The last two or three ejections of this oily pabulum cost the albatross 

 considerable mviscular effort and the last time nothing came up but a little oil, 

 and stomach juices presumably. The young bird is not at all modest in its de- 

 mands, but keeps asking for more. The old bird now pecks back in an annoyed 

 manner, and if the other still urges, she arises and walks off, usually to some 

 neighboring young one, which she viciously mauls about the neck. This exhibi- 

 tion usually takes place just before she feeds her young and likewise between 

 courses, as it were. Why she does this I tim at a loss to suggest, unless it bo 

 mei-e ill will. The old bird does not always confine this ill treatment to one 

 strange young bird, but takes in a circle of those whose parents are absent. The 

 young thus rudely treated sometimes bite back, but usually do not offer resist- 

 ance, uttering instead a plaintive little squeak. A small mortality is the result 

 of this practice. Dr. Gilbert observed that Diomedea nigripes is more savage 

 than the white species. He saw a black-footed albatross thus take in a circle 

 of about twenty young inimutaMlis and " wool " them soundly. Finally, how- 

 ever, the ruffian arrived at a youngster whose parent, being unexpectedly near 

 by, set upon the pei-secutor, and in the scrimmage nigripes was put to rout. 



Plumat/es. — Continuing he says of the development of pUimage in 

 the young: 



The young are hatched in February, according to Mr. Schlemmer. They then 

 are covered with a grayish-white down which is soon superseded by a plumage 

 of dark-brown down, assumed by a continued growth of the original covering 

 and a wearing off of the gray tips. As the young grow older the white feathers 

 come in on the breast and abdomen first, and the brown down is in direct com- 

 munication M'ith the terminal barbs of these juvenal feathers, as is, of course, 

 well known. The feathers of the back also come in about the same time, and 

 those of the wings, save the quills. At the time of our visit the young were 

 about two-thirds grown, the white feathers of the breast and abdomen having 

 in most cases the api>earance of the adult, but the rest of the body was covered 

 with long brown down, except on the head, where it was short. The beaks of 

 the young are dark dirty gray or brownish gray, while those of the adult are 

 light greenish. • ^ 



