6 OCEAN BIRDS. 



With respect to this subject, Dr. R. W. Coppinger has the following, in the ' Cruise 

 of the Alert': — "I have had many opportunities of watching the Yellow-billed species 

 (D. mclanophrys), and I have noticed that it sometimes uses its wings to raise or propel 

 itself in such a manner that to a superficial observer it would then appear to be only 

 soaring with wings stationary. It does not ' flap ' them, but depresses them rapidly 

 towards the breast, so that it seems as if the body were being raised at the expense of 

 the wings, whereas, in reality, the entire bird is elevated. The movement does not 

 resemble a flap, simply because the return of the wings to the horizontal position is 

 accomplished by a comparatively slow movement. By resorting to this manoeuvre 

 occasionally, it is able to maintain a soaring flight for periods which, without its aid, 

 might be considered extraordinarily long. Of course, when it wants to gain a fresh stock 

 of buoyancy and momentum, it gives three or four flaps like any other bird." 



But though it is true that an Albatross cannot soar aloft like an Eagle, and the 

 horizontal flying requires less muscular power, it is in the long, never-wearying .flight, 

 carried on for weeks together, day and night without cessation, with a speed sufficient 

 to go with ease in gigantic circles round and round a vessel sailing at a rate of ten or 

 eleven knots, that it stands unrivalled. That such is the case has been often proved by 

 some peculiarly marked bird being observed night after night and day after day following the 

 ship, and is now a well-established fact, although in the old days, when, with close-reefed 

 sails, all hands turned in at night, sailors used unblushingly to affirm that the birds slept 

 out the middle watches on the yard-arms. It is therefore evident that rest, sleep, and 

 drink are alike indifferent to them, and that in their habits they are both diurnal and 

 nocturnal. In a sea-fog they are neither heard nor seen, though if about they would be easily 

 detected. This is then probably one of the few occasions on which they keep to the water; 

 but though the ship may be bowling merrily along the whole time, when the weather 

 clears the same birds will appear, so quickly can they catch up the vessel again. 



Their natural food consists of all organic matter the sea may heave up, and principally 

 Squid. The same Captain I have quoted with reference to the size of the birds wrote 

 me, "I have found the mandible of the Great Squid, which is like the beak of a Parrot, 

 and the only hard part of the creature, in the crop of the bird when caught." Likewise, 

 in the examinations made on board H.M.S. ' Challenger,' cuttle-fish (which is the same 

 thing) turned out to be their principal food. In very bad weather they fly with their 

 enormous wings doubled up like a wide-spread W — ^ sort of reefing. It is then that 

 they show their wonderful powers of flying to the best advantage, as with no perceptible 

 effort they forge ahead apparently in the teeth of the very stiffest gale. 



