ALBATROSvSES 77 



quick motions of the wings may be detected. The appearance is rather as if the body of 

 the bird dropped a very short distance and rose again. The movements cannot be seen 

 at all unless the bird is e.xactly on a level with the eye. A very quick stroke, carried even 

 through a very short arc can, of course, supply a large store of fresh momentum. In per- 

 fectly calm weather, Albatrosses flap heavily." {Notes by a Naturalist.) 



Professor Hutton's description (in the Ibis) of the flight of the Albatross is probably 

 as accurate as any: — " With outstretched, motionless wings he sails over the surface of the 

 sea, now rising high in air, now with a bold sweep, and wings inclined at an angle with the 

 horizon, descending until the tip of the lower one all but touches the crests of the waves 

 as he skims over them. Suddenly he sees something floating on the water and prepares 

 to alight; but how changed he now is from the noble bird, but a moment before all grace 

 and symmetry. He raises his wings, his head goes back and his back goes in ; down drop two 

 enormous webbed feet straddled out to their full extent, and with a hoarse croak, between 

 the cry of a Raven and that of a sheep, he falls ' souse ' into the water. Here he is at home 

 again, breasting the waves like a cork. Presently he stretches out his neck, and with a great 

 exertion of his wings runs along the top of the water for seventy or eighty yards, until, at 

 last, having got sufficient impetus, he tucks up his legs, and is once more fairly launched 

 in the air." 



Moseley's statement that Albatrosses flap heavily in calm weather should set at rest 

 the oft-reported assertion that they never move their wings in flight, while the observation 

 that there is actually some occasional movement even when the wings seem to be motionless 

 must, of course, be accepted as entirely accurate, even though that acceptance necessarily 

 destroys the cherished notion that the bird has and exercises supernatural powers. But 

 even after it has been explained in perfectly cold-blooded scientific language, there should 

 be enough of the truly remarkable left in the flight of the Albatross to create a profound 

 impression upon any mind which does not insist upon seeing the supernatural where it does 

 not exist. These notions of the supernatural are, of course, especially prevalent among 

 sailors, who are famous for the variety and picturesqueness of their superstitions. And 

 we are indebted to their Albatross superstition for having inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

 to write "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," which, so Swinburne says, "for melody and 

 splendor it were hardly rash to call the first poem in the language." 



About sixteen species of the Albatross are known, and all are essentially birds of the 

 subtropical or southern tropical seas, although the Black-footed and Laysan species some- 

 times wander as far north as Alaska, and either is occasionally seen off the Pacific coast 

 of the United States. Though their wings when extended may measure twelve feet, or even 

 more, their bodies rarely weigh more than eighteen pounds. The food of these great birds 

 consists of fish, cuttlefish, jellyfish, offal, and refuse thrown overboard from the ships they 

 follow. Such matter they seize eagerly, a habit which is taken advantage of by brutal 

 or thoughtless persons who catch the bird by trolling with a long line and a hook baited 

 with meat or fish. 



BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS 

 Diomedea nigripes Audubon 



A. O- V. Number 8i 



Other Name. — Goony. chocolate-brown ; leaden-gray below whitening on front 



General Description. — Lcngtli. 30 to 36 inches. of head and at base of tail; a spot in front of eye and 



Color above, dark chocolate-brown; below, gray. Tail, streak above it, black; feathers of upper parts with 



short; wings, very long and when folded reaching to or paler edges; bill, dusky; feet, black. Young: .Similar 



beyond tip of tail. to adult, but less white on face, and upper tail-coverts 



Color. — Adults: Top of head and upper parts, dark dusky. 



