54 



THE OSPEEY. 



measure 15ft. across the wiiitjs, thus coutiruiiiiij;; 

 the observation long- previously made by Capt. 

 Byam, a .cfood sportsman and accurate writer. 



Dr. Robert Cunningham, in his entertaining' 

 voluuTe "The Natural History of the Strait of 

 Mag-ellan" (1871). describing an exploration of 

 the Patagonia coast between Cape Possession 

 and Dungeness Spit, recounts his falling in 

 with seven or eig'ht Condors, one of whicli he 

 tried in vain to stalk. 



It is (he says) a truly magnificent bird when 

 seen in a wild condition and on the wing-; and 

 one cannot be surprised that the most exag- 

 gerated accounts were given by the older tra- 

 vellers of the dimensions to which it attains, as 

 much as 18ft. having been sometimes assigned to 

 the expanse of wing. 



This, of course, is mere guesswork, and not an 

 ascertained measurement. Some idea of the 

 size of bird may be gained from an inspection 

 of its furcula, of which he gives a iigure (p. 303) 

 froin a specimen picked up on the beach. 



If weight alone were a criterion of size, the 

 Steamer Duck of the Falkland Islands (Microp- 

 terus cinereus — Anas brachyptera of Latham) 

 would challenge comparison with some of the 

 birds above-named. The largest obtained by 

 Dr. Cunningham, who gives an excellent ac- 

 count of it (op. cit. p. 93), measured 3ft. 4in. from 

 bill to tail and weighed 131b., while Capt. Cook 

 mentions in his voyage that the weight of one 

 was 291b. Capt. Philip King, who observed this 

 "gigantic oceanic duck" at the Falklands, de- 

 scribed it as the largest he had ever seen (V03-. 

 "Adventure", i. p. 36), and remarked upon the 

 small size of the wings, which, "not having 

 sufficient power to raise the body, serve only to 

 propel it along rather than through the water, 

 and are used like the paddles of a steam vessel. 

 Aided by these and its strong, broad-webbed 

 feet, it moves with astonishing rapidity'. It 

 would not be an exaggeration to state its speed 

 at from twelve to fifteen miles an hour. This 

 bird, however, being incapable of flight, at all 

 events when full)' adult (see Newton's "Dic- 

 tionary' of Birds,', p. 518), is not comparable 

 with those large pinioned species above men- 

 tioned. As for the Wild Swan, which might 

 seem to challenge comparison with them, it ma^' 

 be remarked e)i passant than an adult Whooper 

 (Cygnus ferus) will measure 4ft. lOin. from tip 

 of bill to end of tail (the long neck counting- for 

 much), 7ft. in expanse of wing, and will weigh 

 from 181b. to 251b. Here it will be seen that, 

 notwithstanding the enormous weight, the ex- 

 tent of wing is no greater than in the Golden 

 Eagle, much less than in the Griffon Vulture, 

 Cinereous Vulture, and I^ammergeier, and only 

 half that of the Condor. 



For our present purpose it remains only to 

 ascertain what has been recorded on good 

 authority of the measurements and weight of 

 the largest species of Albatross (Diomedea 

 exulans). It is found throughout the Southern 

 Ocean, and is seldom met with further north 

 than lat. 30° S., although stragglers have from 

 time to time been reported as occurring beyond 

 that limit. The literature relating to thi.s"bird 

 is very extensive, so much [so, indeed, that it 



will be necessary to pass over many facts of 

 interest concerning it, in order to confine atten- 

 tion to the only two points which have any 

 bearing on the present incjuiry. namely, dimen- 

 sions and weight. 



Here is a good observation of the kind needed 

 1)3' the late Dr. George Bennett, of Sydney. In 

 his "Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia" 

 (18(i(), p. 72), he writes: 



On June 8, in lat. 37° 15' S., long. 16° 27' E., 

 we captured the unusual number of seven speci- 

 mens of the great Wandering Albatross. They 

 were elegant birds of large size, with fine 

 and shining- p 1 u m a g- e, but were quite 

 helpless and stupid when broug-ht on 

 board. The size of the largest was as follows: 

 Length from the base of the bill to the ex- 

 tremity of the tail, 3ft. lOin.; size of the ex- 

 panded wings, lift. 8in. In others the extended 

 pinions measured from 10ft. 4in. to lift.: indeed, 

 I consider lift, the general measurement. I 

 have met with only one specimen in wliich the 

 spread of wings measured 14ft. The difference 

 of sexes did not, in any of these specimens, 

 make any alteration in size; and although the 

 plumag-e differed throug-h age, it did not afford 

 any sexual distinction. 



Mr. W. A. Sanford, writing of Albatrosses 

 seen during a voyage to Australia, and particu- 

 larly referring to those skinned and dissected 

 by himself (Zoologist, 1889, p. 387), remarks: 



I have never measured an Albatross which 

 was more that lift, in expanse of wing — I think 

 the exact measurement was 10ft. lOin. — but I 

 have been confidently assured by others that 

 they have measured some as much as 14ft". 



This confirms the above-mentioned statement 

 by Dr. Bennett. 



Herr Reischek, who visited and described a 

 remarkable breeding haunt of the Wandering 

 Albatross in the Auckland Islands (Trans. N. 

 Z. Inst., 1889, p. 126, and Zoologist, 1889, p. 337), 

 gives the following dimensions of some that he 

 measured: Total length from tip of bill to end 

 of tail, 3ft. 3in.; bill 7in.; tail, 7]in.; whole 

 wing, from 4ft. lOin. to 5ft. lOin.; primaries, 1ft. 

 8in.; whole leg, 1ft. lOin.; tarsus, 4J in.; middle 

 toe, 7in. By the expression "whole wing" is 

 evidently intended the length from the body 

 (not from the carpal joint) to the end of the 

 longest primary', just as the expression "whole 

 leg" includes more than the tarsus. 



Out of more than a hundred specimens of the 

 large Albatross (D. exulans) caught and mea- 

 sured by Mr. J. F. Green (see his "Ocean Birds", 

 p. 5), the larg-est was lift. 4in. from tip to tip. 

 This, he says, was confirmed by the experience 

 of a ship's captain, who in forty years had never 

 found one over that length. As this bears out 

 the observations of Dr. Bennett and Mr. W. A. 

 Sanford, we maj- take it that lift, represents the 

 normal expanse of wing in a fully adult bird. 



In regard to weight, Capt. Hutton endorses 

 the statement made by Gould that the average 

 weight of the Wandering Albatross is I71b. 



The following table will enable a ready com- 

 parison of the species named: 



