62 



ALBATROSS. 



Bill long, very stout, sharp in the tomia, or cutting 

 edges, compressed, straight for the greater part of its 

 length, but much hooked near the tip of the upper 

 mandible, with a truncated point to the lower, exactly 

 fitting the hook. The upper mandible is much 

 furrowed, and channeled to the top by the nasal 

 groove, in which the openings of the nostrils are 

 placed nearly in the middle of the straight part, they 

 are tubular, laterally closed, and open in front ; but 

 the nasal tubes are separated by the culmen, or ridge 

 of the bill, and not united as they are in the petrels. 

 The bill is thus a very powerful fishing instrument, 

 as well for prehension as for cutting and tearing. 

 The peculiar way in which the truncated part of the 

 lower mandible slides upon the truncated portion of 

 the other, produces an action much more powerful 

 than that of any two edges of a bill, how hard and 

 sharp soever, that merely shut against each other. 



Feet, having the characters of walking and swim- 

 ming feet combined ; the tarsi are short but stout, 

 and the tibia are naked a little way above the tarsal 

 joints, which are formed like those of walking birds 

 rather than swimming ones. The toes three, turned 

 to the front, webbed for their whole length, with short 

 but rather crooked claws ; the hind toe wanting, or 

 merely rudimental. The feet are thus better adapted 

 for walking on land, or for tipping the water while 

 the bird is on the wing, than those of the swimming 

 birds properly so called. 



Wings, very long and narrow, wedge-shaped in their 

 terminations, the first quill being very short, and the 

 second shorter than the third ; but, though rather 

 narrow, the wings are hollow, and take a very power- 

 ful hold on the air. The tail is well fortified by co- 

 verts, but short and wedge-shaped. 



The form of the body partakes more of that of the 

 air birds than of the swimming ones ; but, notwith- 

 standing the great length of the wings, the body is 

 not shaped like that of the birds of most rapid flight. 

 The habits correspond ; for the birds are not so re- 

 markable for the rapidity of their progress as for the 

 length of time that they can remain on the wing. 

 .. They are very voracious as well as indiscriminate 

 in their feeding ; and fish even of the weight of four 

 or five pounds, the floating spawn of those fishes 

 which commit that substance to the mercy of the 

 wide sea, and the various mollusca and other ani- 

 mals which are found at the surface of the ocean, are 

 all received by the capacious gullet of those birds. 

 When they fish, the skuas (lestri] can, by driving at 

 them as they do at the gulls, make them deliver up 

 the contents of their stomachs ; but, in general, when 

 the birds are taken, their stomachs are filled with gela- 

 tinous matter, rather than with even the remains of 

 animals, though not with pure oil like the stomachs of 

 the petrels. 



There are several species ; though, as was the case 

 with even the most common of the gulls till very 

 lately, the same bird, in the different stages of ita 

 plumage, may have been described as different species. 

 As might be expected from the sources of our infor- 

 mation respecting these birds, much exaggeration 

 exists, both as to their size, strength, and cry : thus 

 Cuvier very gravely tells us that their voice re- 

 sembles the braying of the ass ; on the contrary, we 

 are assured by individuals who have heard the cry 

 of full grown birds, when within a hundred yards of 

 them, it consists of a sort of piping clang, rather deeper 

 than that of the goose. 



The largest species, and the one wilh which we are 

 best acquainted, is 



Common Albatross. 



THE COMMON ALBATROSS (Diomedia cxulans), 

 which is also called the " wandering albatross," the 

 " man-of-war-bird," the " Cape sheep," and a variety 

 of other names. The distance from land at which 

 these birds are met with, their great size, the contrast 

 which their white colour forms with the sea and the 

 sky, and the length of time that they will follow a ship, 

 apparently always on the wing, and without ever re- 

 posing, or even alighting, cause them to be particu- 

 larly noticed by sailors. 



They are the largest of water birds, both in the 

 weight of the body and the extent of the wings. They 

 vary much, however, in weight, in lineal dimensions, 

 and also in colour. Some of them, when lean, do not 

 weigh more than twelve pounds ; others, when fat, 

 weigh as much as twenty-eight pounds. The length 

 is less than that of the wild swan, vrtiich averages 

 about four feet and a half, but the difference is in 

 the neck of the swan ; and while the wings of the 

 swan rarely, if ever, exceed seven feet in extent, those 

 of the albatross vary from ten to thirteen. The naked 

 parts of the feet are dull reddish brown, the bill pale 

 yellow, and the general plumage white, with reddish 

 grey on the head, a few bluish feathers in the wings, 

 and some hues of black or dusky brown across the back ; 

 but the plumage varies much ; the reddish tinge on 

 the head is most probably an indication of the breeding 

 plumage ; and the mottling on the body an indication 

 of the immature bird. Information upon these points, 

 as well as upon many others in the history of these 

 very singular birds, is, however, very much wanted. 



The general flight of the albatross, as it skims over 

 the surface of the ocean in quest of its food, is not 

 only singular, but singularly beautiful, and tends to 

 render somewhat ludicrous those appeals which have 

 been made to the bird, as one of tne most wonderful 

 instances of muscular exertion. Now the albatross 

 appears to make less exertion in flying than almost 

 any bird with which we are acquainted, not except- 

 ing the common kite, when it hovers, and even when 

 it " gives itself to the wind ;" and the only ground of 

 wonder is, how a bird of so much weight can keep 

 itself up with so little apparent labour. When the 

 albatross rises, it tips the water a few times with its 

 feet, striking with the wings at the same time ; but 

 when it has " gained its height," which in its ordinary 

 fishing is not great, it will glide about for miles with- 

 out almost any apparent motion, save the elevation 



