THE ALBATROSS. 289 
southern hemisphere. The sailors know it under the name of Cape 
Sheep, which they give it on account of its enormous size. Its ex-' 
tended wings measure as much as sixteen feet five inches across.*: 
Its plumage is generally white, with the exception of a dark back. 
Courage is not measured by size. This rule holds good in these 
birds, for, notwithstanding their wonderful strength and their large, 
strong, sharp, and hooked bills, they exhibit the most unaccountable 
_ cowardice. Even a poor weak Sea-mew will attack an Albatross, the 
pusillanimous giant finding no better means of getting rid of his 
enemy than by plunging into the water. Although they are most 
Fig. 107.—The Fulmar Petrel. 
gluttonous in taste, they prefer flight to contending for their food. 
This consists of marine animals, molluscs, mucilaginous zoophytes, 
and the spawn of fish. When they are filled to repletion, and the 
prey which they have seized is too large to swallow whole, they may 
be seen with part of it hanging outside their bill, until the first half 
is digested. Thus embarrassed, the Albatross has only one mode of 
escape if it happens to be pursued; namely, by disgorging the food 
with which its stomach is overloaded. 
Gifted with an extraordinary power of flight, these birds venture ~ 
out to enormous distances from land, more especially in stormy 
weather. They seem to delight in the warring of the elements. When 
* The weight of this bird much varies. A specimen in the Leverian Museum © 
measured thirteen feet from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. One shot » 
off the Cape of Good Ilope was said to be seventeen and a half feet.—ED. 
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