ALBATROSSES. 425 



glassy sea during the stillest calm, or when sweeping with arrow-like swiftness 

 before the most furious gale ; and the way in which it just tops the raging 

 billows and sweeps between the gulfy waves has a hundred times called forth 

 my wonder and admiration." Although a vessel running before the wind 

 frequently sails more than two hundred miles in the twenty-four hours, and 

 that for days together, still the albatross has not the slightest difficulty in 

 keeping up with the ship, but also performs circles of many miles in extent, 

 returning from these excursions to hunt up the wake of the vessel for any 

 substances thrown overboard. Like other species of the genus, the albatross 

 is nocturnal as well as diurnal in its activity, and no bird takes so little repose ; 

 it appears to be perpetually on the wing, scanning the surface of the ocean for 

 mollusks, medusae, and the other marine animals that constitute its food. So 

 frequently does the boldness of its approach cost it its life, that hundreds are 

 annually killed without the numbers being apparently in any degree lessened. 

 It readily seizes a hook baited with fat of any kind: if a boat be lowered, its 

 attention is immediately attracted, and while flying round it is easily shot. 

 Many exaggerated and marvellous accounts have been pubhshed respecting 

 the weight and the dimensions of the bird, particularly as relates to the extent 

 of its wings from tip to tip. Mr. Gould, after killing numerous examples of 

 both sexes and of all ages, found the average weight of the Dionicdca cxulans 

 to be seventeen pounds, and the extent of the wings from tip to tip ten feet and 

 one inch ; examples, however, have been met with, weighing as much as twenty 

 pounds, the extent of whose outstretched wings measured twelve feet. The 

 wandering albatross breeds in the rocky islands of the Southern Ocean, in the 

 months of November and December. The grass-covered declivities of the hills 

 above the thickets of wood are the spots selected for its nest, which consists 

 of a mound of earth intermingled with grass and leaves matted together, 

 eighteen inches in height and six feet in circumference at the base. 



The following account of one of the breeding-places of this feathered 

 monarch of the southern hemisphere is from the pen of Mr. Augustus Earle: 



"Yesterday, being a fine morning, accompanied by two of the men, I 

 determined to ascend the mountain. As several parties had before gone up, 

 they had formed a kind of path ; at least, we endeavoured to trace the same 

 way, but it required a great deal of nerve to attempt it. The sides of the 

 mountain are nearly perpendicular, but after ascending about two hundred 

 feet, it is there covered with wood, which renders the footing much more safe; 

 but, in order to get to the wood, the road is so dangerous, that it almost makes 

 me tremble to think of it : slippery grey rocks, and many of them unfortunately 

 loose, so that when we took hold, they separated from the mass, and fell with 

 a horrid rumbling noise ; here and there were a few patches of grass, the only 

 thing we could depend upon to assist us in climbing, which must be done with 

 extreme caution, for the least slip or false step would dash one to atoms on 

 the rocks below. By constantly looking upwards, and continuing to haul 

 ourselves up by catching firm hold of the grass, after an hour's painful toil w^e 

 gained the summit, where wc found ourselves on an extended plain of several 

 miles' expanse, which terminates in the peak, composed of dark grey lava, bare 

 and frightful to behold. We proceeded towards it, the plain gradually rising; 

 but the walk was most fatiguing, over strong, rank grass, and fern several feet 

 high. A death-like stillness prevailed in those high regions. The prospect 

 was altogether sublime, and filled the mind with awe. The huge albatross 

 here appeared to dread no interloper or enemy, for the young were on the 



