ALBATROS 



Albatros of many authors. Of this, though it has been so long 

 the observed of all observers among voyagers to the Southern 

 Ocean, no one seems to have given, from the life, its finished portrait 

 on the wing, and hardly such a description as would enable those who 

 have not seen it to form an idea of its look. The diagrammatic 

 sketch by Captain (now Professor) Hutton, here introduced, is prob- 



Albatbos. (After Hutton. From the Philos. Mag. Aug. 1809, with the 

 Editor's permission.) 



ably a more correct representation of it than can be found in the conven- 

 tional figures which abound in books. Writers who apply to its flight 

 the epithets graceful, grand, majestic, and the like, convey thereby 

 no definite meaning, and yet by all accounts its appearance must 

 be extremely characteristic. The ease Avith which it maintains itself 

 in the air, " sailing " for a long while without any perceptible motion 

 of its wings, whether gliding over the billows, or boldly shooting aloft 

 again to descend and possibly alight on the surface, has been dwelt 

 upon often enough,^ as has its capacity to perform these feats equally 

 in a seeming calm or in the face of a gale ; but more than this 

 is wanted, and one must hope that a series of instantaneous photo- 

 graphs may soon be obtained which will shew the feathered aei'onaut 

 with becoming dignity. The mode in which the " sailing " of the 

 Albatros is efi'ected has been much discussed, but there can be little 

 doubt that Professor Hutton is right in declaring (Ibis, 1865, p. 296) 

 that it is only " by combining, according to the laws of mechanics, 



^ The most vivid description is perhaps that of Mr. Froude {Oceana, p^). 65, 66), 

 and, as it is cited with approval by Sir W. Buller {B. New Zeal. ed. 2, ii. 

 p. 195), a part may here be quoted. The Albatros "wheels in circles round and 

 round, and for ever round the ship — now far behind, now sweeping past in a long 

 rapid curve, like a perfect skater" on an imtouched field of ice. There is no eflbrt ; 

 watch as closely as you will, you rarely or never see a stroke of the mighty 

 ]nnion. The flight is generally near the water, often close to it. You lose siglit 

 of the bird as he disappears in the hollow between the waves, and catch him again 

 as he rises over the crest ; but how he rises and whence comes the propelling force 

 is to the eye inexplicable ; he alters merely the angle at which the wings are 

 inclined ; usually they are pai'allel to the water and horizontal ; but when 

 he turns to ascend or makes a change in his direction the wings then point at an 

 angle, one to the sky, the other to the water. " 



