The Faithful Albatross 337 



heat of the tropics would be at once fatal to him. 

 Many attempts have been made to bring one of these 

 wonderful birds home alive, but all have been failures ; 

 because for one thing it is impossible to induce the 

 Albatross to take food on board ship, nor if he did 

 eat could he retain what he had swallowed. The 

 first thing done by the captured Albatross when landed 

 on deck is to eject the total contents of his stomach, 

 as if the motion of the vessel, even on the calmest 

 day, was sufficient to make him violently sea-sick. 

 Other sea-birds are liable to the same disability, but 

 none in so marked a degree as the Albatross, 



As a spouse he occupies a high place, except that 

 he only pairs for the season, and the constant com- 

 panionship of the male and female is pretty to see. 

 He seems to realise his position of protector and 

 provider in the highest degree, and not until the 

 incubating period is over does this loving union cease. 

 The female lays but one e^gg, about as large as that 

 of a goose, apparently in the first suitable spot she 

 finds upon the island where she was born. But she 

 does not bother with nest-building any more than 

 do the majority of sea-birds, a little hollow in the 

 sand or a ledge of rock suffices, and there she sits 

 upon her single egg, fed and kept company with by 

 her ardent spouse, until the day when from that egg 

 there appears a funny little ball of snowy down with 

 two intensely black beady eyes and a gaping beak 

 that seems to split its head in two halves. 



The father now departs, disgusted apparently at 

 the sight of this rival in the affections of his wife. 

 She then devotes all her energies to feeding the baby, 

 no easy task, one would think, where there are often- 

 times several thousands of her own kind, to say nothing 

 of mvriads of other sea-birds, close at hand. But 



22 



