LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS, 

 PELICANS, AND THEIR ALLIES, ORDER TUBI- 

 NARES AND ORDER STEGANOPODES. 



By Arthur Cleveland Bent, 



of Taunton^ Massachusetts. 



Order TUBINARES, Tube-nosed Swimmers. 

 Family DIOMEDEIDAE, Albatrosses. 



PHOEBASTRIA NIGRIPES (Audobon). 

 BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS. 



HABITS. 



As we steamed out through Dixon Entrance we soon realized 

 that we were actually going to sea, as the good ship Tahoma rose 

 and fell on the long ocean swell. The numerous gulls which had 

 been following the ship became fewer and fewer, as the land faded 

 from view, and they were gradually replaced by the pretty little 

 fork-tailed petrels, so common on the north Pacific, and the graceful 

 fulmars which were circling about us. An occasional tufted puffin 

 was seen, a pelagic species during most of the year, but most of 

 the gulls and other migrating waterfowl had been left behind before 

 we began to see the long saber-like wings of the black-footed alba- 

 trosses or " goonies," as they are called, skimming low over the 

 heaving billows of the ocean, pelagic wanderers from warmer climes, 

 gleaning a scanty living from the watery wastes. During our four 

 days' trip over the Pacific Ocean to Unimak Pass they were our 

 constant companions. In stormy weather, of which we had plenty, 

 they were more numerous and active, sometimes as many as six 

 being seen about the ship at one time. They will always be asso- 

 ciated in my memory with the ocean storms, with the plunging of 

 the ship over mountainous seas and with the whirr of racing pro 

 pellers over the crests of mighty waves. Amid all the grandeur, 

 excitement, and danger of a storm at sea the albatross glides calmly 

 on, rising easily over the crests of the highest waves and gracefully 



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