Grebes and Divers, Penguins, and Tube^nosed Birds 433 



of this flight, which is quoted with approval by Professor Newton. It runs as follows : " The 

 albatross wheels in circles round and round, and for ever round the ship now far behind, now 

 sweeping past in a long, rapid curve, like a perfect skater on an untouched field of ice. 

 There is no effort; watch as closely as you will, you rarely or never see a stroke of the 

 mighty pinion. The flight is generally near the water, often close to it. You lose sight of 

 the bird as he disappears in the hollow between the waves, and catch him again as he rise? 

 over the crest ; but how he rises and whence comes the propelling force is to the eye 

 inexplicable : he alters merely the angle at which the wings are inclined ; usually they are 

 parallel to the water and horizontal ; but when he turns to ascend or makes a change in his 

 direction, the wings then point at an angle, one to the sky, the other to the water." 



Professor Hutton, speaking with similar enthusiasm of the wonderful flight, gives us, 

 however, another side to the picture. " Suddenly," he says, " he sees something floating on the 

 water, and prepares to alight; but how changed he now is from the noble bird but a moment 

 before, all grace and symmetry ! He raises his wings, his head goes back, and his back goes 

 in ; down drop two enormous webbed feet, straddled out to their full extent ; and with a hoarse 

 croak, between the cry of a raven and that of a sheep, he falls ' souse ' into the water. Here 

 he is at home again, breasting the waves like a cork. Presently he stretches out his neck, and 

 with great exertion of his wings runs along the top of the water for seventy or eighty yards, 

 until, at last, having got sufficient impetus, he tucks up his leg^, and is once more fairly 

 launched in the air." 



For the wonderful photographs of the albatross at home we are indebted to the Hon. Walter 



By permission of the Hon. Walter Rothschild] 



NESTING ALBATKOSSES ON LAYSAN ISLAND. 

 Tin's colony was of enormous size, and included thousands of birds. 



\_Tring. 



55 



