340 The Albatross 



stationary in the water, except that it is sinking. 

 As soon as the bird sees the bait fall he drops into 

 the sea and dives for it ; the moment he seizes it the 

 fisherman hauls in, and in nine cases out of ten the 

 sail-hook catches in the hook of the beak. The bird 

 spreads its wings wide, thrusts its feet forward against 

 the water and shakes its head vigorously, but to no 

 purpose ; the steady strain is kept up, and presently 

 the beautiful creature is landed on deck, all its grace- 

 fulness gone. It is a helpless arrival in a strange 

 sphere surrounded by ruthless enemies. Then it 

 is slain, but so that the snowy whiteness of the skin 

 may be kept unsoiled. the poor bird is usually strangled 

 or beaten on the head with a belaying-pin, both of 

 which barbarous methods of treatment have to be 

 persevered in for some time in order that the fell 

 purpose may be effected, as the bird is very tenacious 

 of life. 



The Cape Hen is a busy brown albatross with 

 a dirty white beak, exceedingly plentiful in the same 

 habitat as the albatross and mollymauk. It has 

 no relieving tint at all, its sober plumage seeming 

 quite out of place among the snowy gatherings of 

 its far more beautiful comrades. In fact, I should 

 say that among the many aerial tribes of ocean it is 

 the most dingily clad. The sailor of old used to know 

 it very well, for it came much more readily to his 

 hook than the other birds, and the long hollow bones 

 of its wings made him excellent pipe-stems. So of 

 course did those of the albatross and mollymauk, 

 but they were much less easily obtained than those 

 of the Cape Hen. 



Another fad of the sailor was to fashion a tobacco 

 pouch out of the feet of these birds, a task demanding 

 much patience, and the resultant bag being by no 



