THE ALBATROSS. 359 



goes not only to the pole but all over the North Polar 

 Zone, wherever there is land. Moreover, with the 

 return of spring these desolate regions are alive with 

 swarms of geese and ducks, which go to nest and 

 rear their young in these pathless wilds where they 

 are safe from the intrusion of enemies. All over the 

 widest ocean too, the sea bird finds a home and a 

 resting place upon its stormy billows, where it is rocked 

 in the cradle of the deep, to its nightly rest. 



The albatross (Diomedia Exulans) for example is 

 continually sweeping over the stormy waves of the 

 great Southern Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. It 

 is undoubtedly the most perfect type of a purely 

 oceanic bird at present existing, and may be met 

 with at the furthermost points from land, bidding 

 defiance to the storm. Here they may be seen sailing 

 with motionless pinions, with greater ease and grace, 

 the fiercer the gale may blow. We have ourselves 

 also noticed many times little birds of the petrel tribe, 

 seemingly hardly larger than a snipe, skimming gaily 

 over the waters quite 1000 miles from land. The 

 broad ocean is everywhere the home of some variety 

 of sea bird. As far as the antarctic regions have 

 been explored, they too were everywhere found to be 

 alive with multitudes of penguins and other fowl. 

 So on the other hand in the driest deserts, where no 

 water is known to be, the sand grouse and the 

 quail, themselves the colour of the sands, seem to 

 thrive where all else is sterility and death, and no 

 doubt they contrive to maintain existence by every 

 second or third day visiting springs, known only to 

 the desert game, which exist among the rocky hills. 

 As for the coasts of desert islands, uninhabited by man 



